present. It might afflict them sadly, poor dears! and they are so gay, so
happy, since they feel sure of their father's love for them. They bore
his departure so bravely! I would not for the world that they should know
of this unfortunate event."

Then as he listened, the soldier resumed: "I hear nothing--and yet they
are always awake so early. Can it be sorrow?"

Dagobert's reflections were here interrupted by two frank, hearty bursts
of laughter, from the interior of the bedroom.

"Come! they are not so sad as I thought," said the soldier, breathing
more freely. "Probably they know nothing about it."

Soon, the laughter was again heard with redoubled force, and the soldier,
delighted at this gayety, so rare on the part of "his children," was much
affected by it: the tears started to his eyes at the thought that the
orphans had at length recovered the serenity natural to their age; then,
passing from one emotion to the other, still listening at the door, with
his body leaning forward, and his hands resting on his knees, Dagobert's
lip quivered with an expression of mute joy, and, shaking his head a
little, he accompanied with his silent laughter, the increasing hilarity
of the young girls. At last, as nothing is so contagious as gayety, and
as the worthy soldier was in an ecstasy of joy, he finished by laughing
aloud with all his might, without knowing why, and only because Rose and
Blanche were laughing. Spoil-sport had never seen his master in such a
transport of delight; he looked at him for a while in deep and silent
astonishment, and then began to bark in a questioning way.

At this well-known sound, the laughter within suddenly ceased, and a