"Are you here, George!" spoke Madame. "What are you doing?"
He held out the sketch to show her: pulling little Marie to him at the same time, to give her a kiss.
"Why you not come to see me?" asked the child in French. For she had taken a great fancy to this pleasant gentleman, who sometimes had bonbons in his pocket for her, calling him, at the Nunnery, little incipient coquette, le joli monsieur.
"Ah, I think I must come and see Miss Marie one of these fine days. Does Marie like dolls?"
"I like four, five dolls," said Marie.
"Four, five!" laughed George. "Why it would be an army. We shall have to dismantle a shop.
"I must be going, Marie," said her mother. "And you will have to make haste with that drawing, George. You will not see very much longer."
"Oh, I shall finish it."
"Have you heard anything, George--gathered anything--that can throw light on poor Anthony?" she looked back, to ask in a whisper.
"Never a word," he answered.