Anfos alone always shook his head: 'That was not
sleep . * .* he would mutter in his beard.
Then Jouse, observing his wife's anxious eyes,
would sharply command the apprentice to be silent,
so Anfos would obediently hold his peace, being
obedient and docile by nature.
Yet despite Christophe's unimpaired physical health
and her willing acceptance of his own simple theory,
Marie perceived that the child had changed, that
now there were times when he seemed much less
childish; times, indeed, when he did not seem child-
ish at all but unnaturally wise and grave for his age,
as though he had already learnt the gravity of life,
and he only a boy of eight years old. ... It would
strike her as being very perplexing.
She would find herself telling this son many things,
speaking as though he were already a man, and smiling
the while she talked of his father — so large, so foolish,
himself scarcely grown up with his great boisterous
laugh and his love of good food, and his habit of wear-
ing the heels of his socks into round, gaping holes the
size of a duck's egg. And her smile would be tender
and full of pride, as who should say: cls he not a marvel,
my husband?' And then she might thrust her knuckles
through a .hole: 'Look, Christophe, look what your
poor mother must darn! Hou, but your father is a
mighty man and heavy, that is why he always wears
out his socks. And you also, I think, will have his
big feet —let us hope that your wife will be clever
with her needle.'
And Christophe would nod understandingly, de-
tecting in her voice the note of admiration for that
deep-chested, curly-headed sire of his, who kept her
so constantly darning and mending.
Sometimes she would speak of le tout petit Loup,
who although he seemed rather less ailing these days,
was still very far from being robust, while growing
141