"Oh! oh!" exclaimed Votini, full of wrath, "what pride!"
As he was saying this, his father came up, and heard him; he looked
steadily at the lad for a moment, then said sharply to his son, "Hold
your tongue!" and, bending down to his ear, he added, "he is blind!"
Votini sprang to his feet, with a shudder, and stared the boy in the
face: the latter's eyeballs were glassy, without expression, without
sight.
Votini stood humbled,--speechless,--with his eyes fixed on the ground.
At length he stammered, "I am sorry; I did not know."
But the blind boy, who had understood it all, said, with a kind and
melancholy smile, "Oh, it's no matter!"
Well, he is vain; but Votini has not at all a bad heart. He never
laughed again during the whole of the walk.