"I looked at you?… My poor boy, how could you think that?… I did not see you. My eyes are tired. That is why I frown…. You don't think me so cruel as that?"
"I think you could be cruel too, if you wanted to be."
"Really?" said Christophe. "In that case, if you thought I did not want to see you, how did you dare to come?"
"Because I wanted to see you."
"And if I had refused to see you?"
"I shouldn't have let you do that." He said this with a little decided air, at once shy and provoking.
Christophe burst out laughing, and Georges laughed too.
"You would have sent me packing! Think of that! You rogue!… No, decidedly, you are not like your father."
A shadow passed over the boy's mobile face.
"You think I am not like him? But you said, just now…? You don't think he would have loved me? You don't love me?"