"Everything springs from small beginnings and everything begins like that."
And his mother, embracing her, said to her son:
"You don't realise how much you owe to her care of you."
When he had finished the rat-trap he asked his sister into his room and showed her the clumsy contrivance, saying:
"This is not a toy, mind you, and we can take out a patent for it. See how simple and strong it is; touch it here."
The girl touched it; something snapped and she screamed wildly; but the hunchback, dancing around her, muttered:
His mother ran up, and the servants came; they broke the rat-trap, and freed the girl's finger, which had turned quite blue. They carried her away fainting, and the boy's mother said to him:
"I will have everything thrown away. I forbid you."
At night he was asked to go to his sister, who said to him:
"You did it purposely. You hate me. What for?"
Moving his hunch he said quietly and calmly:
"But why should I hurt your hand? It is not even the hand you hit me with."
There were no signs that he pitied his sister or looked upon himself as being to blame for her misfortune. His angular face was as calm as it always was, the expression of his eyes was serious and steady--it was impossible to believe that he could lie or be actuated by malice.
After that she did not go so often to his room. She was visited by her friends, chattering girls in bright coloured dresses, as noisy as so many crickets. They brought a welcome note of colour and gaiety to the large rooms, which were rather cold and gloomy--the pictures, the statues, the flowers, the gilt, everything seemed warmer in their presence. Sometimes his sister took them to his room. They affectedly held out their little pink-nailed fingers, taking his hand gingerly as if they were afraid of breaking it. They talked to him very nicely and pleasantly, looking a little astonished, but showing no particular interest in the little hunchback, busy in the midst of tools, drawings, pieces of wood and shavings. He knew that the girls called him "the inventor." His sister had impressed this idea upon them and told them that in the future something might be expected of him which would make the name of his father famous. His sister spoke of this with conviction.