She made Madame Greloux
promise to watch over me as she would have watched over her own
daughter; never to leave me alone; to take me to church, and allow
me an occasional Sunday afternoon, so that I might pay a visit to
the asylum. The gentleman with the spectacles and the skullcap
then reminded the bookbinder of the duties of an employer toward
his apprentices, and turning to a bookcase behind him, he even
took down a large volume from which he read extract after extract,
which I listened to without understanding a word, though I was
quite sure that the book was written in French. At last, when the
man and his wife had said 'Amen' to everything, the gentleman with
the spectacles drew up a document which we all signed in turn. I
belonged to a master?"
She paused. Here her childhood ended. But almost immediately she
resumed: "My recollections of these people are not altogether
unpleasant. They were harassed and wearied by their efforts to
support their son in a style of living far above their position;
but, despite their sacrifices, their son had no affection for
them, and on this account I pitied them. However, not only was
the husband gloomy and quick-tempered, but his wife also was
subject to fits of passion, so that the apprentices often had a
hard time of it. Still, between Madame Greloux's tempests of
wrath there were occasional gleams of sunshine. After beating us
for nothing, she would exclaim, with quite as little reason, 'Come
and kiss me, and don't pout any more.
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