The great
financier leaned upon his cane, and I saw that the hand that held it
was blue and trembling. As he gazed skyward, his breath came deeply as
in a sob.
"Ah, monsieur," I thought, with a surge of pride, "it is I, Lacroix,
who have enabled you to enjoy a parallel triumph. She is your daughter
whom they applaud, truly--but she is also my pupil!"
Figure to yourself my surprise, therefore, when he turned to me
suddenly in appeal, and, with a hand that trembled on my arm, besought
me to take him away.
"I cannot stand it, my dear Lacroix--it isn't safe!" he said, in a low
voice.
He repeated these words several times, his lip quivering like that
of a child who suffers, as I led him into the drawing office of the
ateliers. There he seated himself, bent and gray, upon the edge of an
armchair.
"It's no use, I can't stand it," he said again. "I assure you that I
could see the thing shaking, as it passed overhead, in every stick
and wire of it. It can't be safe! And there she is, five hundred feet
high, with her life hanging on a thread."
"I assure you also, monsieur," I protested, "that I have this very
morning examined every nut and bolt, every brace and valve and stay in
the entire _appareil_. Never have I permitted your daughter to ascend
without such an inspection. I would stake my life upon the perfect
integrity of the machine."
He smiled, a little querulously.
"You are accustomed to stake your life, Monsieur Lacroix. As for me, I
am an old man.
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