I shall not be in the
way, but I shall be there, that is all. You will come and talk to me
about her every evening. It will not put you about, will it? I shall
have gone to bed before you come in, but I shall hear you come up, and
I shall say to myself, 'He has just seen my little Delphine. He has
been to a dance with her, and she is happy, thanks to him.' If I were
ill, it would do my heart good to hear you moving about below, to know
when you leave the house and when you come in. It is only a step to
the Champs-Elysees, where they go every day, so I shall be sure of
seeing them, whereas now I am sometimes too late. And then--perhaps
she may come to see you! I shall hear her, I shall see her in her soft
quilted pelisse tripping about as daintily as a kitten. In this one
month she has become my little girl again, so light-hearted and gay.
Her soul is recovering, and her happiness is owing to you! Oh! I would
do impossibilities for you. Only just now she said to me, 'I am very
happy, papa!' When they say 'father' stiffly, it sends a chill through
me; but when they call me 'papa,' it brings all the old memories back.
I feel most their father then; I even believe that they belong to me,
and to no one else.
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