“You are then glad to see me?”
“Can you ask? But how did you contrive to get here? tell me.”
“Now listen to me. My father falls asleep every evening almost immediately after his supper; I then make him lie down, a little stupefied with his gin. Don’t say anything about it, because, thanks to this nap, I shall be able to come every evening and chat for an hour with you.”
“Oh, I thank you, Rosa, dear Rosa.”
Saying these words, Cornelius put his face so near the little window that Rosa withdrew hers.
“I have brought back to you your bulbs.”
Cornelius’s heart leaped with joy. He had not yet dared to ask Rosa what she had done with the precious treasure which he had intrusted to her.
“Oh, you have preserved them, then?”
“Did you not give them to me as a thing which was dear to you?”
“Yes, but as I have given them to you, it seems to me that they belong to you.”