"Are you quite sure?" asked Robespierre anxiously.
"Oh! quite sure, and since you called me your son it shows you recognised me, and had not the fever so badly after all."
"Yes, you are right! It was nothing since ... as you said ... since I recognised you; ... for it was you of course I called my son: ... you are my good little son, are you not?"
And he patted his cheeks, adding—
"But you must not speak of it to anybody! not to anybody, mind! It is not worth while worrying your father and mother."
"Oh no! I have never said anything!"
Robespierre began again to feel uneasy.
"How do you mean? You have never said anything?"
"Why, it is not the first time it has happened to you."
"Have you heard me before, then?"