“And you have seen him before?”
“Yes, yes! he belongs to the great house at the end of the street, where there is an iron gate with gilt points.”
The child quickly raised his head, and stopped crying. The little boy answered all the questions that were put to him, and gave such details as left no room for doubt. The other child understood him, for he went up to him as if to put himself under his protection.
“Then you can take him to his parents?” asked the mason, who had listened with real interest to the little boy’s account.
“I don’t care if I do,” replied he; “it’s the way I’m going.”
“Then you will take charge of him?”
“He has only to come with me.”
And, taking up the basket he had put down on the pavement, he set off toward the postern-gate of the Louvre.
The lost child followed him.
“I hope he will take him right,” said I, when I saw them go away.