His contact with Agnès had not ceased; but over the two years of her stay at the farm it had diminished. She was so at home, so patently happy there, that by and by her former doctor ceased to trouble about her. They had both survived his panicky error and the outcome had maybe been more favourable to her than if he had never been so foolish as to make it in the first place. Or so he consoled himself. So it was with alarm he heard the news, via one of the nursing staff, a friend of Maddy and aware of his interest, that the old man had died and Agnès had been more or less thrown out by the niece. Denis Deman remembered this niece: the one whom Jean Dupère’s mother had not cared for; the one to whom the old man had not wished to leave the silver chain. Reproving himself for not keeping a closer eye on Agnès, Denis Deman sat down at his desk and wrote to this unpopular niece care of the farm, marking the envelope for forwarding.
