he has loved!"

At that moment, James, who had remained at the other end of the room,
and who perceived that we were speaking low, got up softly, and with a
delicate discretion, said to his wife,

"We will go away without making any noise."

"Are you going, James?"

"I am in the way, my dear Mr. Desgranges."

"No, pray stay longer."

His benefactor retained him, reaching out to him cordially his hand. The
blind man seized the hand in his turn, and pressed it warmly against his
heart.

"My dear friend, my dear good friend, you permit me to stay a little
longer. How glad I am to find myself near you. When I am sad I
say--'James, the good God will, perhaps, of His mercy, put you in the
same paradise with Mr. Desgranges,' and that does me good."

The young man smiled at this simple tenderness, which believed in a
hierarchy in Heaven. James heard him.

"You smile, sir. But this good man has re-created James. I dream of it
every night--I have never seen him, but I shall know him then. Oh my
God, if I recover my sight I will look at him for ever--for ever, like
the light, till he shall say to me, James, go away. But he will not
say so, he is too good. If I had known him four years ago, I would have
served him, and never have left him."

"James, James!" said Mr. Desgranges; but the poor man could not be
silenced.

"It is enough to know he is in the village; this makes my heart easy. I
do not always wish to come in, but I pass before his house, it is always
there; and when he is gone a journey I make Juliana lead me into the
plain of Noiesemont, and I say--'turn me towards the place where he is
gone, that I may breathe the same air with him.'"

Mr. Desgranges put his hand before his mouth. James stopped.

"You are right, Mr. Desgranges, my mouth is rude, it is only my heart
which is right. Come, wife," said he, gayly, and drying his great tears
which rolled from his eyes, "Come, we must give our children their
supper. Good-by, my dear friend, good-by, sir."

He went away, moving his staff before him. Just as he laid his hand upon
the door, Mr. Desgranges called him back.

"I want to tell you a piece of news which will give you pleasure. I was
going to leave the village this year; but I have just taken a new lease
of five years of my landlady."

"Do you see, Juliana," said James to his wife, turning round, "I was
right when I said he was going away."

"How," replied Mr. Desgranges, "I had told them not to t