le Prince.
He must have known what I was carrying him to see, but he did not
choose to show that he did, and when he gave me his arm and I took
him into the pansy salon, there sat my mother with my sister, two or
three old friends who had come to congratulate her, and to see M. de
Solivet, and Cecile, who had not been able to persuade herself to
send her children to bed, though she knew not of my audacious
enterprises.
I saw that he did not know her in the least, as he advanced to my
mother, as the lady of the house, and in one moment I recollected how
my grandfather had fallen in love with my grandmother without knowing
she was his life. Cecile, crimson all over, with her children beside
her, sprang forward, her heart telling her who he was. 'Ah,
Monsieur, embrace your son,' she murmured. And little Armantine and
Maurice, as they had been tutored, made their pretty reverences, and
said, 'Welcome, my papa.'
He really was quite touched. There was something, too, in the
surroundings which was sympathetic. He embraced them all, and
evidently looked at his wife with amazement, sitting down at last
beside her with his little boy upon his knee.
We drew to the farther end of the room that they might be
unembarrassed. Annora was indignant that we did not leave them
alone, but I thought he wanted a certain check upon him, and that it
was good for him to be in the presence of persons who expected him to
be delighted to see his wife and children.
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