"I will wait until she is able to be removed in my carriage. But tell me, sister, among all these unhappy sick, do you not know some who particularly merit my interest and pity, and to whom I can be useful before I leave the hospital?"
"Oh! madame, it is heaven sends you," said the sister; "there is," added she, pointing to the bed of Pique-Vinaigre"s sister, "a poor woman, very sick, and very much to be pitied; she mourns continually about two small children, who have no one to look to for support but herself. She told the doctor just now that she would leave here, cured or not cured, in a week, as her neighbor had promised to take care of her children for that time only."
"Conduct me to her bed, I pray you, sister," said Lady d"Harville, rising, and following the nun.
Jeanne Duport, scarcely recovered from the violent attack caused by the treatment of Dr. Griffon, had not perceived the entrance of the n.o.ble lady into the hospital. What was her surprise, then, when the latter, lifting up the curtains of her bed, said to her, with a look full of kindness and commiseration, "My good mother, you must not be any longer uneasy about your children; I will take care of them; only think of being soon cured, so that you can join them."
Jeanne Duport thought that she was in a dream. In the same place where Dr.
Griffon and his students had made her submit to such a cruel ordeal, she saw a lady of surpa.s.sing beauty come to her with words of pity, consolation, and hope.
The emotion of Pique-Vinaigre"s sister was so great that she could not utter a word; she clasped her hands as if in prayer, looking at her unknown benefactress with adoration.
"Jeanne, Jeanne," whispered La Lorraine, "speak to this good lady." Then, addressing the marchioness, she said, "Ah! madame, you save her; she would have died with despair in thinking of her poor dest.i.tute children."
"Once more rea.s.sure yourself, my good mother--have no uneasiness," repeated the marchioness, pressing in her small white hand the burning one of Jeanne Duport. "Rea.s.sure yourself; be no longer uneasy concerning your children; and if you prefer it, you shall leave the hospital today; you shall be nursed at home--nothing shall be wanting. in this way you shall not leave your dear children; from this time I will see that you do not want for work, and I will attend to the future welfare of your children."
"Ah! what do I hear? The cherubim descend, then, from heaven, as is written in the church books," said Jeanne Duport, trembling, and scarcely daring to look at her benefactress. "Why so much goodness for me? How have I deserved this? It cannot be possible! I leave the hospital, where I have wept so much, suffered so much! not leave my children any more! have a nurse! why, it is a miracle from above!"
And the poor woman spoke the truth. If one only knew how sweet and easy it is to perform often, and at a small expense, such miracles! Alas! for those poor unfortunates, abandoned and repulsed on all sides--an instantaneous, unhoped-for a.s.sistance, accompanied by benevolent words of consideration, tenderly commiserative, may easily wear the supernatural appearance of a miracle.
"It is not a miracle, my good mother," answered Clemence, much affected; "that which I do for you," added she, slightly blushing at the recollection of Rudolph, "that which I do for you is inspired by a generous being, who has taught me to relieve the unfortunate; it is he whom you must bless and thank."
"Ah! madame! I shall bless you and yours," said Jeanne Duport, weeping. "I ask your pardon for expressing myself so badly. I am not accustomed to such great joy; it is the first time it has happened to me."
"Well! do you see, Jeanne," said La Lorraine, weeping, "there are also among the sick some Rigolettes and Goualeuses--on a large scale, it is true; but as to the good heart, it is the same thing!"
Lady d"Harville turned toward La Lorraine, much surprised at hearing her p.r.o.nounce these two names.
"You know La Goualeuse and a young workwoman named Rigolette?" demanded Clemence of La Lorraine.
"Yes, madame. La Goualeuse--dear little angel--did last year for me--bless her! according to her poor means--that which you do for poor Jeanne. Yes, madame--oh! it does me good to say and repeat to every one, that La Goualeuse took me from a cellar where I was confined on some straw; and the dear little angel removed me and my child to a room where there was a good bed and a cradle. La Goualeuse did this out of pure charity; for she scarcely knew me, and was very poor herself. That was very kind, was it not, madame?" said La Lorraine excited.
"Oh! yes; the charity of the poor toward the poor is holy," said Clemence, her eyes bathed in tears.
"It was just the same with Rigolette, who, according to her means," replied La Lorraine, "offered her services, a few days since, to Jeanne."
"What a singular coincidence!" said Clemence to herself, more and more affected, for each of these two names, La Goualeuse and Rigolette, recalled a n.o.ble action of Rudolph. "And you, my child--what can I do for you?" said she to La Lorraine. "I wish the names that you have just p.r.o.nounced with so much grat.i.tude may bring you good fortune."
"Thank you, madame," said La Lorraine, with a smile of bitter resignation.
"I had a child--it is dead. I am in a consumption, and am in a hopeless state. I have no longer need of anything."
"What gloomy thoughts! At your age--so young--there is always some remedy."
"Oh! no, madame, I know my fate: I do not complain. I saw a person die last night--here--with the same disease; it is an easy death I thank you for your goodness."
"You may magnify your danger."
"I am not mistaken, madame, I know it well. But since you are so kind--a great lady like you is all-powerful--"
"Speak--say, what do you wish?"
"I have asked a service of Jeanne; but, since, thanks to the good G.o.d and you, she is going away--"
"Ah! well, this service--can I not render it?"
"Certainly, madame; one word from you to the sisters, or to the physician, would arrange all."
"This word? I will speak it, be a.s.sured."
"Since I have seen the actress who is dead, so tormented by the fear of being cut up after her death, I have had the same fear. Jeanne promised to come and claim my body, and have me buried."
"Ah! it is horrible!" said Clemence, shuddering with affright. "One must come here to know that there are, for the poor, misery and alarms even beyond the tomb."
"Pardon, madame," said La Lorraine, timidly; "for a great lady, rich and happy as you deserve to be, this request is a very sad one; I ought not to have made it!"
"I thank you, on the contrary, my child; it teaches me a misery of which I was ignorant, and this knowledge shall not be fruitless. Be comforted; although this fatal moment may be far off, when it does arrive, you may be sure to repose in holy ground."
"Oh! thank you, madame!" cried La Lorraine. "If I might dare to ask permission to kiss your hand."
Clemence presented her hand to the parched lips of La Lorraine.
"Oh! thank you, madame. I shall have some one to pray for and bless to the end, with La Goualeuse, and shall be no longer sad, for after my death---"
This resignation, and the fears far beyond the grave, had painfully affected Lady d"Harville; she whispered to the sister who came to inform her that Miss de Fermont was completely restored, "Is the condition of this young woman really desperate?"
"Alas! yes, madame; La Lorraine is given up; she has not perhaps, a week to live."
Half an hour afterward, Madame d"Harville, accompanied by Saint Remy, took with her, to her own house, the young orphan, from whom she had concealed the death of her mother.
The same day an agent of Lady d"Harville, after having visited in the Rue de Barillerie the miserable abode of Jeanne Duport, and having received the most favorable accounts of this worthy woman, immediately hired on the Quai de l"ecole two large rooms and a bedroom; thanks to the resources of the Temple, they were furnished in two hours, and the same evening, Jeanne Duport was removed to this dwelling, where she found her children and an excellent nurse. The same agent was instructed to claim the body of La Lorraine, whenever she should sink under her malady, and have it decently interred. After having installed Claire de Fermont in her apartment, Lady d"Harville set out at once for Asnieres, accompanied by Saint Remy, in order to conduct Fleur-de-Marie to Rudolph.
CHAPTER XXI.
HOPE.
The early days of spring approached, the sun began to resume his power, the sky was pure, the air soft and mild. Fleur-de-Marie, leaning on the arm of La Louve, tried her strength by walking in Dr Griffon"s garden. The vivifying warmth of the sun and the action of walking colored with a rosy tint the pale, thin cheeks of Goualeuse; her peasant"s costume having been torn in the agitation attending the first a.s.sistance that had been rendered her, she wore a dress of dark-blue merino, made loose, and only confined around her delicate and slender waist by a woolen girdle.
"How pleasant the sun is!" said she to La Louve, stopping at the foot of a hedge of green trees exposed to the south, and which surrounded a stone bench. "Will you sit down here a moment, La Louve?"
"Is there any need of asking me if I will?" answered the wife of Martial, shrugging her shoulders.
Then, taking from her neck her shawl, she folded it carefully, knelt down, laid it on the slightly damp gravel of the walk, and said to La Goualeuse:
"Place yourself there."