"I am going to call Renée," she said.
There was a tap at the door, then the rustle of a dress; then a young
voice exclaimed:
"Here I am, mamma!"
Lormerin remained bewildered as at the sight of an apparition.
He stammered:
"Good-day, mademoiselle."
Then, turning toward the mother:
"Oh! it is you!"
In fact, it was she, she whom he had known in bygone days, the Lise
who had vanished and come back! In her he found the woman he had won
twenty-five years before. This one was even younger, fresher, more
childlike.
He felt a wild desire to open his arms, to clasp her to his heart
again, murmuring in her ear: