"
The good man wiped his eyes, he was crying.
"It is a long while since I have heard them talk like that, a long,
long time since she took my arm as she did to-day. Yes, indeed, it
must be quite ten years since I walked side by side with one of my
girls. How pleasant it was to keep step with her, to feel the touch of
her gown, the warmth of her arm! Well, I took Delphine everywhere this
morning; I went shopping with her, and I brought her home again. Oh!
you must let me live near you. You may want some one to do you a
service some of these days, and I shall be on the spot to do it. Oh!
if only that great dolt of an Alsatian would die, if his gout would
have the sense to attack his stomach, how happy my poor child would
be! You would be my son-in-law; you would be her husband in the eyes
of the world. Bah! she has known no happiness, that excuses
everything. Our Father in heaven is surely on the side of fathers on
earth who love their children. How fond of you she is!" he said,
raising his head after a pause. "All the time we were going about
together she chatted away about you. 'He is so nice-looking, papa;
isn't he? He is kind-hearted! Does he talk to you about me?' Pshaw!
she said enough about you to fill whole volumes; between the Rue
d'Artois and the Passage des Panoramas she poured her heart out into
mine.
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