He touched the electric knob and the room was flooded with light. Perrine, who had taken a few steps nearer, uttered a cry and let the book of travels fall to the floor.
"What is the matter?" he asked.
She did not reply, but stood there with her eyes fixed on the picture of a fair young man dressed in a hunting suit leaning with one hand on a gun and the other stroking the head of a black spaniel.
There was silence in the room, then the blind man heard a little sob.
"Why are you crying?" he asked.
Perrine did not reply for a moment. With an effort she tried to control her emotion.
"It is the picture ... your son ... you are his father?" she stammered.
At first he did not understand, then in a voice that was strangely sympathetic he said:
"And you ... you were thinking of your father, perhaps?"
"Yes, yes, sir; I was."