Froberval added:
“It must be the last portrait of yourself which you sent him. Look, on the back, you will see the date, 3 April, the name of the photographer, R. de Val, and the name of the town, Lion—Lion-sur-Mer, perhaps.”
Isidore turned the photograph over and read this little note, in his own handwriting:
“R. de Val.—3.4—Lion.”
He was silent for a few minutes and resumed:
“My father hadn’t shown you that snapshot yet?”
“No—and that’s just what astonished me when I saw it yesterday—for your father used so often to talk to us about you.”
There was a fresh pause, greatly prolonged. Froberval muttered:
“I have business at the workshop. We might as well go in—”
He was silent. Isidore had not taken his eyes from the photograph, was examining it from every point of view. At last, the boy asked: