He sprang to the bench, threw himself down by Monsieur Joseph, flung his arm around his shoulders.
"Ah, little uncle, voyons, tell me everything. You said you would help me—"
"Help you! I am well repaid when I try to help you!" said Joseph, with a short laugh.
"But that was not the way! Come, come!" and Angelot laid his head against the little uncle's shoulder, coaxing and caressing him as he might have done ten years before, as Riette would do now.
"Ah, diable! what would you have? I offered them you in the place of Ratoneau or a convent, and you would not even wait to hear what they said. Nonsense about her mother! Mothers do not kill their children in these days. Mademoiselle is a little extravagant."
"I don't believe it. She knows her mother. I think Madame de Sainfoy would stop at nothing—no ill-treatment—to force her own way. I saw it in her face, I met her eyes when you dragged me into the room. Uncle Joseph, I tell you she hates me already, and if she thinks I am an obstacle to her plans, she will never let me see Hélène again."
"Where were you, then, when I called you, good-for-nothing?"
"I was on the stairs, talking to her. Her mother had sent her out of the room—"
"On my word, you snatch your opportunities!"
"Of course! And when you were young—"