Invited to Sologne for a hunting trip, Lord Blackenfield fell off his horse and was cared for by the gamekeeper's daughter, Nicole Grammont, whom he married shortly afterwards. Nicole's simple and spontaneous manner displeases her husband, who reproaches her without indulgence.
- You must not behave here like the daughter of a gamekeeper! he once told her at the height of anger.
- I forbid you to talk to me like that," she replied, "my father was a well-behaved man and did not insult women!
Rather than endure humiliation after humiliation, Lady Blackenfield, who had touched the bottom of all the bitterness, fled, leaving her son Michaëlis to her husband, who intended to assume his education alone. The cup is full....
And every evening, in front of his mother's portrait, the child lays a few flowers. "That's a paper mom... It's an image... like in books.
Will he ever see her again?