"
Then as Cecile, without answering him, rose to go and comfort Norine, he
again became interested in the child, who likewise felt frightened and
turned pale on seeing the grief of his two mammas.
"So that lad is my brother?"
Thereupon Norine suddenly sprang to her feet and set herself between the
child and him. A mad fear had come to her of some catastrophe, some great
collapse which would crush them all. Yet she did not wish to be harsh,
she even sought kind words, but amid it all she lost her head, carried
away by feelings of revolt, rancor, instinctive hostility.
"You came, I can understand it. But it is so cruel. What can I do? After
so many years one doesn't know one another, one has nothing to say. And,
besides, as you can see for yourself, I'm not rich."
Alexandre glanced round the room for the second time. "Yes, I see," he
answered; "and my father, can't you tell me his name?"
She remained thunderstruck by this question and turned yet paler, while
he continued: "Because if my father should have any money I should know
very well how to make him give me some. People have no right to fling
children into the gutter like that.
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