Miss Mariette Dalize, who was familiarly called Miette, for short, looked at her father without saying anything, awaiting an explanation. Monsieur Dalize understood her silence.
"You want to know what it is that makes me so happy?"
"Yes, papa."
"Well, then, it is because I am going to-day to see one of my friends,—my oldest friend, my most faithful friend,—whom I have not seen for ten long years."
Monsieur Dalize stopped for a moment.
"Indeed," he continued, "you cannot understand what I feel, my dear little Miette."
"And why not, papa?"
"Because you do not know the man of whom I speak."
Miette looked at her father, and said, in a serious tone,—