“How could his father have consented...”
“He would have done more than consent, he would have wanted.”
“He's an impossible father.”
“Pretty much, he's an inventor.”
“An inventor! What do you mean?”
“Have you read the works of an esteemed novelist, Hector Malot?”
“I read ‘The Brother-in-law’.”
“It's ‘A Bonne Affaire’ I am talking about. You would have read the story of a character who looks like Mr. Bérard like two drops of water. He invents, he always invents, anything, he doesn't care; he ruins himself, he ruins his wife, his children and he invents all the time. He was born inventing, he will die inventing. Diane's father had a pretty good fortune, he dissipated it by experimenting on a new lighting mode that was never adopted. Mrs. Bérard died of grief; her husband buried her, th
