“Hélène!”
“Father!”
They fell into each other’s arms, and the old man’s embrace was not so close and warm as Hélène’s.
“Were you on board that vessel?”
“Yes,” he answered sadly, and looking at the little ones, who gathered about him and gazed with wide open eyes.
“I was about to perish, but—”
“But for my husband,” she broke in. “I see how it was.”
“Ah!” cried the General, “why must I find you again like this, Hélène? After all the many tears that I have shed, must I still groan for your fate?”
“And why?” she asked, smiling. “Why should you be sorry to learn that I am the happiest woman under the sun?”
“Happy?” he cried with a start of surprise.