"I wish," said Lorraine, after a moment"s hesitation, "I wish you would render me a service!"
"What is it?"
"If I die, as is probable, before you go from here, will you claim my body? I have the same dread as the actress, and have laid aside the small sum of money necessary to bury me."
"Oh, do not have such ideas!"
"Still promise me, all the same!"
"But let us hope the case will not happen!"
"Yes; but if it does happen--thanks to you, I shall not have the same misery as the actress."
"Poor woman! After having been rich to come to such an end!"
"The actress is not the only one in this room who has been rich."
"Who else?"
"A young girl of about fifteen or so, brought here yesterday evening.
She was so weak that they were obliged to support her. The sister said that the young lady and her mother were very reputable persons, who had been ruined."
"And is her mother here, too?"
"No, the mother was too ill to be moved. The poor girl would not leave, so they took advantage of her fainting to convey her. The proprietor of a wretched lodging-house, for fear they should die in his rooms, made the report at the police station. She is there--in the bed opposite you."
"And she is fifteen? The age of my eldest girl!" And Jeanne Duport wept bitterly.
"Pardon me," said La Lorraine, "if I have given you pain unconsciously in speaking of your children! Are they, too, ill?"
"Alas! I do not know. What will become of them if I remain here for a week?"
"And your husband?"
"As we are friends together, Lorraine, I will tell you my troubles, as you have told me yours, and that will comfort me. My husband was an excellent workman, but became dissipated, and forsook me and my children, after having sold everything we possessed. I went to work; some good souls aided me, and I began to get easy again, and was bringing up my little family as well as I could, when my husband returned with a vile creature, his mistress, and again stripped me of everything; and so I had to begin all over again."
"Poor Jeanne! You could not help it."
"I ought to have separated myself from him in law,--but, as my brother says, the law is too dear! I went to see my brother one day, and he gave me three francs, which he had collected amongst the prisoners on telling his tales. So I took courage, believing my husband would not return for a very long time, as he had taken all he could from us. But I was mistaken," added the poor creature, with a shudder; "there was my poor Catherine still to take!"
"Your daughter?"
"You will hear--you will hear! Three days ago, as I was at work with my children around me, my husband came in. I saw by his look that he had been drinking. "I have come for Catherine," says he. I took my daughter"s arm, and I said to Duport, "Where do you want to take her to?" "What"s that to you? She"s my daughter. Let her make up her bundle and come along with me." At these words my blood ran cold in my veins; for you must know, Lorraine, that that bad woman is still with my husband, and it makes me shudder all over to say it. But so it was; she had long been urging him to earn something by our daughter, who is young and pretty. "Take away Catherine?" said I to Duport; "Never! I know what that wicked woman would do with her." "I say," said my husband, whose lips were white with rage, "do not oppose me or I"ll kill you!" and then he seized my daughter by the arm, saying, "Come along, Catherine!" The poor child threw her arms around my neck, and burst into tears, exclaiming, "I will stay with mother!" When he saw this, Duport became furious, tore my daughter from me, and hit me a blow in my stomach, which knocked me down; and when I was on the ground--he was very drunk, you may be sure--he trampled on me and hurt me dreadfully. My poor children begged for mercy on their knees,--Catherine, too; and then he said to her, swearing like a lunatic, "If you will not come with me I"ll do for your mother!" I was spitting blood; I felt half dead, and could not move an inch. But I cried to Catherine, "Let him kill me first!"
"What, you won"t be quiet?" said Duport, giving me another kick, which deprived me of all consciousness; and when I returned to myself, I found my two little boys crying bitterly."
"And your daughter?"
"Gone!" exclaimed the unhappy mother, with convulsive sobs. "Yes; gone.
My other children told me that their father had beaten them and threatened to finish me. Then the poor girl was quite distracted and embraced me and her brothers, weeping dreadfully; and then my husband dragged her away. Ah, that bad woman was waiting for him on the stairs, I know!"
"And didn"t you complain to the police?"
"At first I felt only grief at Catherine"s departure; but I felt soon great pain in all my limbs,--I could not walk. Alas, what I had so long dreaded had happened! Yes, I told my brother that one day my husband would beat me so that I should be obliged to go to the hospital,--and then what would become of my children? And now here I am in the hospital, and what, indeed, will become of my children? The neighbours went for the commissary, who came. I didn"t like to denounce Duport, but I was obliged, in consequence of my daughter; only I said that in our quarrel about our daughter he had pushed me, that it was nothing, but I wanted my daughter Catherine because I feared the bad woman with whom my husband lived would be the ruin of her."
"Well, and what did the commissary say?"
"Why, that my husband had a right to take away his daughter, as we were not separated; that it would be a misfortune if my daughter turned out badly from evil counsels, but that they were only suppositions, after all, and that was not sufficient for a complaint against my husband.
"You have but one way--plead in the courts, demand a separation--and then the beatings your husband has given you, his behaviour with a vile woman, will be in your favour, and they will force him to restore your daughter to you; but, otherwise, he has a right to keep her with him."
"But how can I plead when I have my children to feed?" "What can be done?" said the clerk; "that"s the only way!"" and poor Jeanne sobbed bitterly, adding, "And he is right--that is the only way! And so, in three months, my daughter may be walking the streets, whilst if I could plead and be separated it would not happen. Alas, poor Catherine, so gentle and so affectionate!"
"Oh, you have, indeed, a bitter sorrow; and yet I was complaining!" said La Lorraine, drying her eyes. "And your other children?"
"Why, on their account, I did all I could to bear the pains I was suffering, and not go to the hospital; but I could not go on. I vomited blood three or four times a day, and a fever took away the use of my arms and legs, and I was at last unable to work. If I am quickly cured I may return to my children, if they are not first dead from hunger or locked up as beggars. Who will maintain them whilst I am here?"
"Oh, it is very terrible! Have you no kind neighbours?"
"They are as poor as myself, and have five children already. It is very hard, but they promised to do a little something for them for a week; that is all they could do. And so, cured or not cured, I must go out in a week."
"But your friend, Mademoiselle Rigolette?"
"Unfortunately, she is in the country, and going to be married, the porter said. No, I must be cured in eight days; and I asked all the doctors who spoke to me yesterday, but they laughed as they replied, "You must ask the princ.i.p.al surgeon." When will he come, Lorraine?"
"Hush! I think I hear him now. And no one is allowed to speak during his visit," replied Lorraine, in a low voice.
The daylight had appeared during the conversation of the two women. A bustle announced the arrival of Doctor Griffon, who entered the room accompanied by his friend, the Comte de Saint-Remy, who took so warm an interest in Madame de Fermont and her daughter, but was very far from expecting to find the unfortunate young lady in the hospital. As he entered the ward, the cold and harsh features of Doctor Griffon seemed to expand. Casting around him a look of satisfaction and authority, he answered the obsequious reception of the sisters by a protecting nod.
The coa.r.s.e and austere countenance of the old Comte de Saint-Remy was imprinted with the deepest sorrow. His ineffective attempts to find any traces of Madame de Fermont, and the ignominious baseness of the vicomte, who had preferred a life of infamy to death, overwhelmed him with grief.
"Well," said Doctor Griffon to him, with an air of triumph, "what do you think of my hospital?"
"Really," replied M. de Saint-Remy, "I do not know why I yielded to your desire; nothing is more harrowing than the sight of rooms filled with sick persons. Since I entered, my feelings have been severely distressed."
"Bah, bah! In a quarter of an hour you will think no more of it. You, who are a philosopher, will find here ample matter for observation; and besides, it would have been a shame for you, one of my oldest friends, not to have known the theatre of my glory, my labours, and seen me at work. I take pride in my profession--is that wrong?"
"No, certainly; and after your excellent care of Fleur-de-Marie, whom you have saved, I could refuse you nothing."
"Well, have you ascertained anything as to the fate of Madame de Fermont and her daughter?"
"Nothing!" replied M. de Saint-Remy, with a sigh. "And my last hope is in Madame d"Harville, who takes such deep interest in these two unfortunates; she may find some traces of them. Madame d"Harville, I hear, is expected daily at her house; and I have written to her on the subject, begging her to reply as soon as possible."
During the conversation between M. de Saint-Remy and Doctor Griffon, several groups were formed gradually around a large table in the middle of the apartment, on which was a register in which the pupils of the hospital (who were to be recognised by their long white ap.r.o.ns) came in their turns to sign the attendance-sheet.
"You see, my dear Saint-Remy, that my staff is pretty considerable."
"It is indeed! But all these beds are occupied by women, and the presence of so many men must inspire them with painful confusion!"
"All these fine feelings must be left at the door, my dear Alcestis.
Here we begin on the living those experiments and studies which we complete on the dead body in the amphitheatre."
"Doctor, you are one of the best and worthiest of men, and I owe you my life, and I recognise all your excellent qualities; but the practice and love of your art makes you take views of certain questions which are most revolting to me. I leave you. These are things which disgust and pain me; and I foresee that it would be a real punishment to me to be present at your visit. I will wait for you here at the table."