"
Maurice kissed her boldly; Jean put his lips very respectfully to the
warm, soft little hand.
The train stopped and the Darbois family were in an instant reunited.
Mlle. Frahender declined escort to her convent. Francois Darbois
installed her in a landau, and after he had thanked her heartily for
her kindness to his daughter, gave the address to the coachman, who
drove away with the old lady holding her inevitable little package on
her lap, and steadying her old-fashioned little attache case on the
seat opposite.
The Darbois family took their places in another carriage. Esperance
must sit between her father and mother, leaning close to them,
caressing them endlessly, and dropping her little blonde head on her
mother's shoulder.
"Oh! how long it seems since I have seen you," she kept repeating.
She held her father's hand and pressed it against her heart. It seemed
to her suddenly as if she had suffered from that absence of three
days, and yet she could not specify at what moment she had wished
herself back with them. She recounted all the little events that had
taken place during the three eventful days.
"You know," she explained to her father, "I am bringing you all the
newspaper articles. Then I have the letter from the President of the
Committee, and the beautiful presents from the King and Queen."
The carriage stopped at the Boulevard Raspail. The _concierge_
came forward.
"I am sure I hope that Mademoiselle has had a success.
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