She said these words in a voice that trembled so with emotion that the blind man was surprised at the depths of this little girl's feelings.
"You see," he said, "how in the depths of your heart how much you want their love and affection."
"Yes, but how I dread being turned away," she replied.
"But why should you be?" he asked. "Have your grandparents any other children beside your father?"
"Why shouldn't they be glad that you should come and take the place of the son they have lost? You don't know what it is to be alone in the world."
"Yes, I do ... I know only too well what it is," replied Perrine.
"Youth who has a future ahead is not like old age, which has nothing before it but Death."
She looked at him. She did not take her eyes from his face, for he could not see her. What did his words mean? From the expression of his face little Perrine tried to read the inmost thoughts that stirred this old man's heart.
"Well," he said, after waiting a moment, "what do you think you will do?"
"I hesitate because I feel so bad about it," she said. "If I could only believe that they would be glad to have me and would not turn me away...."
"You know nothing of life, poor little girl," said the old gentleman. "Age should not be alone any more than youth."
"Do you think all old people feel like that?" asked Perrine.
"They may not think that it is so, but they feel it."
"You think so?" she said, trembling, her eyes still fixed on his face.
He did not reply directly, but speaking softly as though to himself, he said:
Then getting up from his seat abruptly, as though to drive away thoughts that made him feel sad, he said in a tone of authority: "Come across to the offices. I wish to go there."
When would Fabry, the engineer, return? That was the question that Perrine anxiously asked herself, for on that day her role of interpreter to the English machinists would terminate.
That of translator of newspaper articles to M. Vulfran, would that continue until M. Bendit had recovered from his illness? Here was another question that made her even still more anxious.
It was on Thursday, when she reached the factories with the two machinists, that she found Monsieur Fabry in the workshop busy inspecting the work that had already been done. Discreetly she waited at a distance, not taking part in any of the explanations that were being made, but all the same the chief machinist drew her into the conversation.