Of course, she knew this better than any other person in the house. "Well", she continued, "I am going out, pour faire quelques courses en fiacre. I shall call Dr. John, and send him to the child. I will that he sees her this very evening; her cheeks are flushed, her pulse is quick: you will receive him—for my part, I shall be from home".
Now the child was well enough, only warm with the warmth of July; it was scarcely less needful to send for a priest to administer extreme unction than for a doctor to prescribe a dose; also madame rarely made “courses” as she called them, in the evening: moreover, this was the first time she had chosen to absent herself on the occasion of a visit from Dr. John. The whole arrangement indicated some plan; this I saw, but without the least anxiety. “Ha! ha! madame!” laughed Light-heart the beggar, “your crafty wits are on the wrong tack”.
She departed, attired very smartly in a shawl of price, and a certain chapeau vert tendre—hazardous, as to its tint, for any complexion less fresh than her own, but, to her, not unbecoming. I wondered what she intended: whether she really would send Dr. John or not; or whether indeed he would come: he might be engaged.
Madame had charged me not to let Georgette sleep till the doctor came; I had therefore sufficient occupation in telling her nursery tales and palavering the little language for her benefit. I affected Georgette; she was a sensitive and loving child; to hold her in my lap, or carry her in my arms was to me a treat. To-night she would have me lay my head on the pillow of her crib: she even put her little arms round my neck. Her clasp and the nestling action with which she pressed her cheek to mine, made me almost cry with a tender pain. Feeling of no kind abounded in that house; this pure little drop from a pure little source was too sweet: it penetrated deep, and subdued the heart, and sent a gush to the eyes.
Half an hour or an hour passed; Georgette murmured in her soft lisp that she was growing sleepy. “And you shall sleep”, thought I, “malgré maman and médicin, if they are not here in ten minutes”.
Hark! There was the ring, and there the tread, astonishing the staircase by the fleetness with which it left the steps
