“Forgive me if I do not make you a bow,” said he, merrily, “but I want both my hands for the nosegay Monsieur Charles has given me.”
“You are, then, become great friends?” said I.
“Oh! I should think so,” said the child; “and now my father is rich too!”
“How’s that?”
“Monsieur Duval lent him some money; he has taken a shop, where he works on his own account; and, as for me, I go to school.”
“Yes,” replied I, remarking for the first time the cross that decorated his little coat; “and I see that you are head-boy!”
“Monsieur Charles helps me to learn, and so I am come to be the first in the class.”
“Are you now going to your lessons?”
“Yes, and he has given me some lilacs; for he has a garden where we play together, and where my mother can always have flowers.”
“Then it is the same as if it were partly your own.”