Plan of House
The poor girl leapt from her bed, terrified, seized hold of me just as I was putting my hand on the lock, and forced me back into bed.
I struggled in her arms, crying out with all my might: "Good-bye, papa! Good-bye, papa!"
Something like a dying breath passed over my face and quietened me. But I fell asleep sobbing, with tears on my cheeks.
Next day they woke us at dawn, my father had died precisely at the time we heard the knocking at the door! Then it was that I heard these words, but without taking in their significance: "My poor child, the papa who loved you so much is dead!"
I cannot tell what lips uttered those words over me, the little orphan of three and a half years, nor who it was that announced the greatest misfortune of my life.