Ah! you ought to have seen how his eyes
brightened up, and how his hands trembled, when he took up the bonds!
Well, he refused to take them, after all; and the only reward he asks
for the very good service which he is going to render us"--
M. de Chandore expressed his assent by a gesture, and then said,--
"You are right, darling: that clerk is a good man, and he has won our
eternal gratitude."
"I ought to add," continued Dionysia, "that I was ever so brave. I
should never have thought that I could be so bold. I wish you had been
hid in some corner, grandpapa, to see me and hear me. You would not have
recognized your grandchild. I cried a little, it is true, when I had
carried my point."
"Oh, dear, dear child!" murmured the old gentleman, deeply moved.
"You see, grandpapa, I thought of nothing but of Jacques's danger, and
of the glory of proving myself worthy of him, who is so brave himself. I
hope he will be satisfied with me."
"He would be hard to please, indeed, if he were not!" exclaimed M. de
Chandore.
The grandfather and his child were standing all the while under the
trees in the great Square while they were thus talking to each other;
and already a number of people had taken the opportunity of passing
close by them, with ears wide open, and all eagerness, to find out
what was going on: it is a way people have in small towns.
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