Madeleine had come to stay at Vichy for a few days.
"We will give you new courage," she said.
"I'm not lacking in it! You're the one who needs it, poor little sister."
"Oh! I have enough for three."
It was true enough. I was struck by her spirit of determination. And I had thought her in danger of giving way entirely beneath the blow. She spoke of nothing but the future; of her plans; of the education of her children. She thought of going to live at Versailles: the rents were not so high there as in Paris, they would be near the town, and the Lycée Hoche. For she wanted to keep Robert with her, in order that the whole family should cling together.
As my eyes were again drawn irresistibly to the little boy, she said: "Isn't he like——"
She did not complete the sentence. Tears pearled on her eyelashes. It was one of the few allusions she allowed herself, to her great sorrow.
I told her that her children would find a second father in me.
"He counted on it," she assured me.
And she showed me a note which Victor had written before leaving St. Mihiel; a few lines in which he confided those dearest to him on earth, to my charge. What instinct warned him that he would fall; that I should be preserved?