in memory as it was when I was a child. Well, there it is, everything
has changed, except the child-memory. I have had, and I have had not;
and there it is. I am not the same man--but yes, in my love just the
same, with all the rest--' He did not go on, so I said, 'If not the
same, then what are you, Jean Jacques?'"

"Ah, Fille, in the old days he would have said that he was a philosopher"
--said his sister interrupting. "Yes, yes, one knows--he said it often
enough and had need enough to say it. Well, said he to me, 'Me, I am a'
--then he stopped, shook his head, and so I could scarcely hear him,
murmured, 'Me--I am a man who has been a long journey with a pack on his
back, and has got home again.' Then he took Virginie's hand in his."

The old man's fingers touched the corner of his eye as though to find
something there; then continued. "'Ah, a pedlar!' said I to him, to hear
what he would answer. 'Follies to sell for sous of wisdom,' he answered.
Then he put his arm around Virginie, and she gave him his pipe."

"I wish M. Carcasson knew," the little grey lady remarked.

"But of course he knows," said the Clerk of the Court, with his face
turned to the sunset.