"
Gabriel was so glad to see us that it was always a joy to go and play with
him on our Thursday half-holidays. Paula always told him Bible stories, for
that seemed to be his chief pleasure, and I taught him to read. Victoria's
mother used to bring her work over to Mlle. Virtud's room and heard the
stories with great delight.
"If I had been able to leave my Victoria in school she would have become as
wise and learned as you, Mesdemoiselles," she would say a bit sadly at
times. "But there, I can't complain; what would we have done without the
money she earns at the factory?"
One afternoon we said good-bye to Gabriel and mounted the stairs to visit
the blind girl. Left alone for most of the day, she passed the long hours
knitting. She was about the same age as our Catalina, but she appeared to
be much older. The first time we had visited her, she had hardly raised her
head from her work, and showed but little interest in the stories that her
mother had asked us to read to her. It was not so much indifference as an
apparent incapacity to comprehend the meaning of what she heard. But on
this particular afternoon Paula started singing a hymn. The poor girl
suddenly dropped her work in her lap, and listened with rapt attention.
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