"All right," the other replied. "Thanks to God, I have brought back a
few soldi. But I wanted to inquire. Tell me how the education of the
little dumb girl is getting on. When I left her, she was a poor little
animal, poor thing! I don't put much faith in those colleges. Has she
learned how to make signs? My wife did write to me, to be sure, 'She is
learning to speak; she is making progress.' But I said to myself, What
is the use of her learning to talk if I don't know how to make the signs
myself? How shall we manage to understand each other, poor little thing?
That is well enough to enable them to understand each other, one
unfortunate to comprehend another unfortunate. How is she getting on,
then? How is she?"