Part 31 (2/2)

Father and daughter gazed at one another for an instant; then flew into each other's arms, uttering a cry.

The girl was dressed in a white and reddish striped material, with a gray ap.r.o.n. She is a little taller than I. She cried, and clung to her father's neck with both arms.

Her father disengaged himself, and began to survey her from head to foot, panting as though he had run a long way; and he exclaimed: ”Ah, how she has grown! How pretty she has become! Oh, my dear, poor Gigia!

My poor mute child!--Are you her teacher, signora? Tell her to make some of her signs to me; for I shall be able to understand something, and then I will learn little by little. Tell her to make me understand something with her gestures.”

The teacher smiled, and said in a low voice to the girl, ”Who is this man who has come to see you?”

And the girl replied with a smile, in a coa.r.s.e, strange, dissonant voice, like that of a savage who was speaking for the first time in our language, but with a distinct p.r.o.nunciation, ”He is my fa-ther.”

The gardener fell back a pace, and shrieked like a madman: ”She speaks!

Is it possible! Is it possible! She speaks? Can you speak, my child? can you speak? Say something to me: you can speak?” and he embraced her afresh, and kissed her thrice on the brow. ”But it is not with signs that she talks, signora; it is not with her fingers? What does this mean?”

”No, Signor Voggi,” rejoined the teacher, ”it is not with signs. That was the old way. Here we teach the new method, the oral method. How is it that you did not know it?”

”I knew nothing about it!” replied the gardener, lost in amazement. ”I have been abroad for the last three years. Oh, they wrote to me, and I did not understand. I am a blockhead. Oh, my daughter, you understand me, then? Do you hear my voice? Answer me: do you hear me? Do you hear what I say?”

”Why, no, my good man,” said the teacher; ”she does not hear your voice, because she is deaf. She understands from the movements of your lips what the words are that you utter; this is the way the thing is managed; but she does not hear your voice any more than she does the words which she speaks to you; she p.r.o.nounces them, because we have taught her, letter by letter, how she must place her lips and move her tongue, and what effort she must make with her chest and throat, in order to emit a sound.”

The gardener did not understand, and stood with his mouth wide open. He did not yet believe it.

”Tell me, Gigia,” he asked his daughter, whispering in her ear, ”are you glad that your father has come back?” and he raised his face again, and stood awaiting her reply.

The girl looked at him thoughtfully, and said nothing.

Her father was perturbed.

The teacher laughed. Then she said: ”My good man, she does not answer you, because she did not see the movements of your lips: you spoke in her ear! Repeat your question, keeping your face well before hers.”

The father, gazing straight in her face, repeated, ”Are you glad that your father has come back? that he is not going away again?”

The girl, who had observed his lips attentively, seeking even to see inside his mouth, replied frankly:--

”Yes, I am de-light-ed that you have re-turned, that you are not go-ing a-way a-gain--nev-er a-gain.”

Her father embraced her impetuously, and then in great haste, in order to make quite sure, he overwhelmed her with questions.

”What is mamma's name?”

”An-to-nia.”

”What is the name of your little sister?”

”Ad-e-laide.”

”What is the name of this college?”

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