She observed him carefully for a
time, and saw the human heart in all its nakedness. Balthazar had
dwindled from his true self. The consciousness of his abasement, and
the isolation of his life in the pursuit of science made him timid and
childish in all matters not connected with his favorite occupations.
His daughter awed him; the remembrance of her past devotion, of the
energy she had displayed, of the powers he had allowed her to take
away from him, of the wealth now at her command, and the indefinable
feelings that had preyed upon him ever since the day when he had
abdicated a paternity he had long neglected,--all these things
affected his mind towards her, and increased her importance in his
eyes. Conyncks was nothing to him beside Marguerite; he saw only his
daughter, he thought only of her, and seemed to fear her, as certain
weak husbands fear a superior woman who rules them. When he raised his
eyes and looked at her, Marguerite noticed with distress an expression
of fear, like that of a child detected in a fault. The noble girl was
unable to reconcile the majestic and terrible expression of that bald
head, denuded by science and by toil, with the puerile smile, the
eager servility exhibited on the lips and countenance of the old man.
She suffered from the contrast of that greatness to that littleness,
and resolved to use her utmost influence to restore her father's sense
of dignity before the solemn day on which he was to reappear in the
bosom of his family.
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