"Let us now pass to the future payments."
"Then we are to keep the child?"
"Probably, and be parents to it," said Gilbert, in a stifled voice and losing color.
"Dear, dear, is he an outcast?"
Gilbert had not expected such feeling and questions: but he recovered from the emotion.
"I did not tell you the whole truth," he said; "the poor father died on the shock of hearing that his wife gave up her life in bearing him the child."
The women wrung their hands with sympathy.
"So that the child can reckon on no love from his parents," continued Gilbert, breathing painfully.
At this point in tramped Daddy Pitou with a calm and jolly manner. His was one of those round and honest characters, overflowing with health and good will, such as Greuze paints in his natural domestic pictures. A few words showed him how matters stood. Out of good nature he understood things—even those beyond his comprehension.
Gilbert made it clear that the keep-money would be paid until the boy was a man and able to live alone with his mind and arm.