Part 51 (1/2)

he will be here to-morrow with Cosette: how far is it from here to Montfermeil?”

The sister, who had no idea of distances, replied, ”Oh, I think that he will be here to-morrow.”

”To-morrow! to-morrow!” said Fantine, ”I shall see Cosette to-morrow!

you see, good sister of the good G.o.d, that I am no longer ill; I am mad; I could dance if any one wished it.”

A person who had seen her a quarter of an hour previously would not have understood the change; she was all rosy now; she spoke in a lively and natural voice; her whole face was one smile; now and then she talked, she laughed softly; the joy of a mother is almost infantile.

”Well,” resumed the nun, ”now that you are happy, mind me, and do not talk any more.”

Fantine laid her head on her pillow and said in a low voice: ”Yes, lie down again; be good, for you are going to have your child; Sister Simplice is right; every one here is right.”

And then, without stirring, without even moving her head, she began to stare all about her with wide-open eyes and a joyous air, and she said nothing more.

The sister drew the curtains together again, hoping that she would fall into a doze. Between seven and eight o'clock the doctor came; not hearing any sound, he thought Fantine was asleep, entered softly, and approached the bed on tiptoe; he opened the curtains a little, and, by the light of the taper, he saw Fantine's big eyes gazing at him.

She said to him, ”She will be allowed to sleep beside me in a little bed, will she not, sir?”

The doctor thought that she was delirious. She added:--

”See! there is just room.”

The doctor took Sister Simplice aside, and she explained matters to him; that M. Madeleine was absent for a day or two, and that in their doubt they had not thought it well to undeceive the invalid, who believed that the mayor had gone to Montfermeil; that it was possible, after all, that her guess was correct: the doctor approved.

He returned to Fantine's bed, and she went on:--

”You see, when she wakes up in the morning, I shall be able to say good morning to her, poor kitten, and when I cannot sleep at night, I can hear her asleep; her little gentle breathing will do me good.”

”Give me your hand,” said the doctor.

She stretched out her arm, and exclaimed with a laugh:--

”Ah, hold! in truth, you did not know it; I am cured; Cosette will arrive to-morrow.”

The doctor was surprised; she was better; the pressure on her chest had decreased; her pulse had regained its strength; a sort of life had suddenly supervened and reanimated this poor, worn-out creature.

”Doctor,” she went on, ”did the sister tell you that M. le Maire has gone to get that mite of a child?”

The doctor recommended silence, and that all painful emotions should be avoided; he prescribed an infusion of pure chinchona, and, in case the fever should increase again during the night, a calming potion. As he took his departure, he said to the sister:--

”She is doing better; if good luck willed that the mayor should actually arrive to-morrow with the child, who knows? there are crises so astounding; great joy has been known to arrest maladies; I know well that this is an organic disease, and in an advanced state, but all those things are such mysteries: we may be able to save her.”

CHAPTER VII--THE TRAVELLER ON HIS ARRIVAL TAKES PRECAUTIONS FOR DEPARTURE

It was nearly eight o'clock in the evening when the cart, which we left on the road, entered the porte-cochere of the Hotel de la Poste in Arras; the man whom we have been following up to this moment alighted from it, responded with an abstracted air to the attentions of the people of the inn, sent back the extra horse, and with his own hands led the little white horse to the stable; then he opened the door of a billiard-room which was situated on the ground floor, sat down there, and leaned his elbows on a table; he had taken fourteen hours for the journey which he had counted on making in six; he did himself the justice to acknowledge that it was not his fault, but at bottom, he was not sorry.

The landlady of the hotel entered.

”Does Monsieur wish a bed? Does Monsieur require supper?”