"Oh, I admit," he went on, with his own peculiar smile, gently ironical,
disillusioned and vague, "I have every useless thing in the world in my
house there. The only thing wanting is the necessary thing, a great patch
of open sky like this. Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life,
little boy," he added, turning to me. "You have a soul in you of rare
quality, an artist's nature; never let it starve for lack of what it
needs."
When, on our reaching the house, my aunt would send to ask us whether Mme.
Goupil had indeed arrived late for mass, not one of us could inform her.
Instead, we increased her anxiety by telling her that there was a painter
at work in the church copying the window of Gilbert the Bad. Francoise
was at once dispatched to the grocer's, but returned empty-handed owing to
the absence of Theodore, whose dual profession of choirman, with a part in
the maintenance of the fabric, and of grocer's assistant gave him not only
relations with all sections of society, but an encyclopaedic knowledge of
their affairs.
"Ah!" my aunt would sigh, "I wish it were time for Eulalie to come.
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