"And your mother—you are going to leave your mother alone here?"
"That is the great objection, after all, the only great one, for the present, but my mother cannot ask me to let my life be sacrificed and made useless as hers has been. Her next feeling later on will be one of approval, because I have freed myself from the intolerable yoke which has lain so heavily on her. Yes, she will forgive me. And then——"
Jean pointed to the jagged green mountains.
"And then, there is dear France, as you say. It is she who attracts me. It is she who spoke to me first!"
"You child!" cried M. Ulrich.
He placed himself before the young man, who remained seated, and who was almost smiling.
"A nation must be fine indeed who, after thirty years, can evoke such a love as yours! Where are the people one would regret in the same way? Oh! blessed race which speaks again in you!"
He stopped a moment.
"However, I cannot leave you in ignorance of the kind of difficulties and disillusions you are going to encounter. It is my duty. Jean, my Jean, when you have passed the frontier and claimed the qualification of Frenchman according to the law, and finished your year's military service.—What will you do?"
"I shall always be able to earn my bread."