Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/172

 life! I suffer as much as you do. I never wept except at my children’s and Ursule’s death—Here, I will do anything you wish!” he cried.

Through her tears, Ursule gave her godfather a look that was like a flash; she smiled.

“Let us go to the salon, and contrive to keep all this to yourself, my little one,” said the doctor, leaving his goddaughter in his study.

This father felt himself so weak before this divine smile, that he was almost on the point of saying a word of hope and so misleading his goddaughter.