Had Madelon been a shy
plain child--had she hidden her face, and run from him
screaming to her nurse, as children are so wont to do, he
would then and there have paid the money he had brought with
him as the ostensible cause of his visit, and gone on his way,
thinking no more about her for another two years perhaps. But
Madelon had no thought of shyness with the tall fair handsome
man who had taken her fancy: she stood for a moment in the
pathway before him, balancing herself on tiptoe with uplifted
arms, confident in the hope of being taken up; and, as the
woman recognizing M. Linders, came forward and bade the child
run to Papa, with a sudden unaccustomed emotion of tenderness,
almost pathetic in such a man, he stooped down and raised her
in his arms.
As he travelled back to Paris that day, M. Linders formed a
plan which he lost no time in carrying, partially, at least,
into execution. During the next twelvemonth he spent much of
his time in Paris, and went frequently to see his mall
daughter, never without some gift to win her heart, till the
child came to regard his pocket as the inexhaustible source of
boundless surprises, in the shape of toys and cakes and
bonbons.
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