Rather let down and yet wonder-struck, I realised that the little girl had at last found in him the playfellow she had been dimly expecting . . . Admiral Meaulnes had left me one joy; I felt that he had come back to take it away from me.
Un peu déçu et pourtant émerveillé, je comprenais que la petite fille avait enfin trouvé là le compagnon qu’elle attendait obscurément… La seule joie que m’eût laissée le grand Meaulnes, je sentais bien qu’il était revenu pour me la prendre.