Weary as she was at night, no persuasion could induce her to retire before her mistress. She insisted upon being at hand to undress her. Seated by her side, she would rise from time to time to wait upon her as best she could, assist her to take off a petticoat, then sit down again, collect her strength for a moment, rise again, and insist upon doing something for her. Mademoiselle had to force her to sit down and order her to keep quiet. And all the time that the evening toilet lasted she had always upon her lips the same tiresome chatter about the servants of the house.
“Why, mademoiselle, you haven’t an idea of the eyes they make at each other when they think no one sees them—the cook and the man—I mean. They keep quiet when I am by; but the other day I surprised them in the bakery. They were kissing, fancy! Luckily madame here don’t suspect it.”
“Ah! there you are again with your talebearing! Why, good God!” mademoiselle would exclaim, “what difference does it make to you whether they coo or don’t coo? They’re kind to you, aren’t they? That’s all that’s necessary.”
“Oh! very kind, mademoiselle; as far as that’s concerned I haven’t a word to say. Marie got up in the night last night to give me some water—and as for him, when there’s any dessert left, it’s always for me. Oh! he’s very polite to me—in fact, Marie don’t like it very well that he thinks so much about me. You understand, mademoiselle—”
“Come, come! go to bed with all your nonsense!” said her mistress sharply, sad, and annoyed as well, to find such a keen interest in others’ love-affairs in one so ill.
LXI
When they returned from the country, the doctor, after examining Germinie, said to Mademoiselle: “It has been very rapid, very rapid. The left lung is entirely gone. The right has begun to be affected at the top, and I fear that there is more or less difficulty all through it. She’s a dead woman. She may live six weeks, two months at most.”
“Great Heaven!” said Mademoiselle de Varandeuil, “everyone I have ever loved will go before me! Tell me, must I wait until everybody has gone?”
“Have you thought of placing her in some institution?” said the doctor, after a moment’s silence. “You can’t keep her here. It’s too great a burden, too great a grief for you to have her with you,” he added, at a gesture from mademoiselle.
“No, monsieur, no, I haven’t thought of it. Oh! yes, I am likely to send her away. Why you must have seen, monsieur: that girl isn’t a maid, she isn’t a servant in my eyes; she’s like the family I never had! What would you have me say to her: ‘Be off with you now!’ Ah! I never suffered so much before on account of not being rich and having a wretched four-sou apartment like this. I, mention such a thing to her! why, it’s impossible! And where could she go? To the Maison Dubois? Oh! yes, to the Dubois! She went there once to see the maid I had before, who died there. You might as well kill her! The hospital, then? No, not there; I don’t choose to have her die in that place!”
“Good God, mademoiselle, she’ll be a hundred times better off there than here. I would get her admitted at Lariboisière, during the term of service of a doctor who is a friend of mine. I would recommend her to an intern, who is under great obligations to me. She would have a very excellent Sister to nurse her in the hall to which I would have her sent. If necessary, she could have a private room. But I am sure she would prefer to be in a common room. It’s the essential thing to do, you see, mademoiselle. She can’t stay in that chamber up there. You know what these horrible servants’ quarters are. Indeed, it’s my opinion that the health authorities ought to compel the landlords to show common humanity in that direction; it’s an outrage! The cold weather is coming; there’s no fireplace; with the window and the roof it will be like an icehouse. You see she still keeps about. She has a marvelous stock of courage, prodigious nervous vitality. But, in spite of everything, the bed will claim her in a few days—she won’t get up again. Come, listen to reason, mademoiselle. Let me speak to her, will you?”
“No, not yet. I must get used to the idea. And then, when I see her around me I imagine she isn’t going to die so quickly as all that. There’s time enough. Later, we’ll see about it—yes, later.”
“Excuse me, mademoiselle, if I venture to say to you that you are quite capable of making yourself
