"The actress was only two years older, and you see---"
"She whom the good sisters are watching now, was she an actress?"
"Oh, yes--what a fate! She had been beautiful as the day. She had plenty of money, equipages, diamonds, but, unfortunately, the small-pox disfigured her; then want came, then poverty--behold her dead in the hospital. Yet, she was not proud; on the contrary, she was kind and gentle to everybody; she told us that she had written to a gentleman whom she had known in her prosperity, who had loved her; she wrote to him to come and reclaim her body, because it hurt her feelings to think she would be dissected--cut in pieces."
"And this gentleman has come?"
"No."
"Oh! that is very cruel."
"At each moment the poor woman asked for him, saying continually, "Oh! he will come! oh! he will surely come;" and yet she died, and he had not come."
"Her end must have been so much the more painful."
"Oh, Lord, yes; for she dreaded so much what they would do to her body."
"After having been rich and happy, to die here is sad! For us, it is only a change of misery."
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE VISIT.
"Speaking of that," resumed La Lorraine, after a moment"s hesitation, "I wish you would render me a service."
"Speak."
"If I should die, as is probable, before you leave this, I wish you would claim my body--I have the same dread as the actress; and I have put aside the small amount of money I have left, so that I can be buried."
"Do not have such ideas."
"Never mind--do you promise me?"
"Yes! but Lord be praised, that will not happen."
"But, if it does happen, I shall not have, thanks to you, the same misfortune as the actress."
"Poor lady, after having been rich, to end thus!"
"The actress was not the only one in this room who has been rich, Madame Jeanne."
"Call me Jeanne, as I call you La Lorraine."
"You are very kind."
"Who is it that has been rich besides?"
"A young person not over fifteen, who was brought here last night, before you came. She was so weak that they were obliged to carry her. The sister said that this young girl and her mother were very respectable people, who had been ruined."
"Her mother is also here?"
"No: the mother was so very sick, that she could not be moved. The poor child would not leave her, and they profited by a fainting fit to bring her here. It was the proprietor of a wretched lodging-house who, for fear that they would die in his abode, applied for their admission."
"And where is she?"
"There, in the bed opposite to yours."
"And only fifteen?"
"At the most."
"The age of my eldest daughter!" said Jeanne, unable to restrain her tears.
"Pardon me," said La Lorraine, sadly, "pardon me, if I cause you pain, unintentionally, by speaking of your children. Perhaps they are sick also?"
"Alas! I do not know what will become of them if I stay here more than a week."
"And your husband?"
After a pause, Jeanne answered, drying her tears, "Since we are friends together, La Lorraine, I can tell you my troubles, as you have told me yours--it will solace me. My husband was a good workman; he has become dissipated; he abandoned me and my children, after having sold all that we possessed; I worked hard; charitable people aided me; I began again to raise my head; I brought up my little family as well as I could, when my husband came back, with a bad woman, and again took all I had, leaving me to commence anew."
"Poor Jeanne! could you not prevent that?"
"I could have procured a separation by law, but the law is too dear, as my brother says. Alas! you shall see what effect this has upon us poor folks; some days since, I returned to see my brother: he gave me three francs, which he had collected from those who listened to his stories in prison."
"It is plain to see that you are a kind-hearted family," said La Lorraine, who, from a rare instinctive delicacy, did not interrogate Jeanne as to the cause of her brother"s imprisonment.
"I took courage, then; I thought that my husband would not return for a long time, for he had taken from me all that he could take. No, I am mistaken," added the unhappy mother, shuddering: "there remained my daughter--my poor Catharine."
"Your daughter?"
"You shall see--you shall see. Three days since, I was at work, with my children around me; my husband came in. I saw at once that he been drinking. "I come after Catharine," said he. I caught my daughter by the arm, and asked Duport, "Where do you wish to take her?" "That does not concern you--she is my daughter; let her tie up some clothes and follow me." At these words my blood curdled in my veins; for, imagine, La Lorraine, that this woman who is with my husband--it makes me shudder to say it, but--"
"Ah! yes, she is a real monster."
""Take Catharine away!" I answered to Duport: "never!" "Now," said my husband, whose lips were already white with rage,"do not provoke me, or I"ll knock you down!" Then he took my child by the arm, saying, Come with me, Catharine." The poor little thing threw her arms around my neck; bursting into tears, she cried, "I wish to stay with mamma!" Seeing this, Duport became furious: he tore my child from me, giving me a blow with his fist, which knocked me down; and once down--but, do you see, La Lorraine,"
said poor Jeanne, interrupting herself, "it is very certain he would not have been so cruel, except he had been drinking in fine, he trampled upon me, loading me with curses."
"How bad he must be!"
"My poor children fell on their knees, begging for mercy; Catharine also.
Then he said to my daughter, swearing like a madman, "If you do not come with me, I will finish the job with your mother!" I vomited blood. I felt myself half dead; but I cried to Catharine, "Rather let him kill me! but do not follow your father!" "Will you not be silent, then?" said Duport, giving me another blow, which made me lose all consciousness."
"What misery! what misery!"