Then a deafening cheer rang out. It was continued for several minutes. Cheers came from the mouths of seven thousand men, women and children. Then, as the Order of the Day had been previously arranged, a line was formed and in single file they passed before their old chief and his granddaughter. With a bow and a hearty wish each man passed by.
"Ah, grandpapa, if you could only see their kind faces!" cried Perrine.
But there were some faces that were not exactly radiant. The two nephews certainly looked very glum when, after the ceremony, they came up to their cousin to offer their congratulations.
"As for me," said Talouel, who did not mean to lose any time in paying court to the young heiress, "I had always supposed...."
The excitement of the day proved too much for M. Vulfran. The doctor was called in.
"You can understand, doctor," said the blind man anxiously, "how much I want to see my little granddaughter. You must get me into a state so that I can have this operation."
"That is just it," said the doctor cheerily, "you must not have all this excitement. You must be perfectly calm. Now that this beautiful weather has come, you must go out, but you must keep quiet, and I guarantee that as soon as your cough has gone we shall be able to have a successful operation."
And the doctor's words came true. A month after M. Vulfran's birthday two specialists came down from Paris to perform the operation.
When they wished to put him under an anesthetic he refused.
"If my granddaughter will have the courage to hold my hand," he said, "you will see that I will be brave. Is it very painful?"