Ah, my friends, I know happiness as well as I know sorrow; I know its signs.

By the kiss my Modeste gives me I can guess what is passing within her.

I know whether she has received what she was looking for, or whether she is uneasy or expectant.

There are many gradations in a kiss, even in that of an innocent young girl, and Modeste is innocence itself; but hers is the innocence of knowledge, not of ignorance.

I may be blind, but my tenderness is all-seeing, and I charge you to watch over my daughter." Dumay, now actually ferocious, the notary, in the character of a man bound to ferret out a mystery, Madame Latournelle, the deceived chaperone, and Madame Dumay, alarmed for her husband's safety, became at once a set of spies, and Modeste from this day forth was never left alone for an instant.