Volume VI Part 25 (1/2)
He persisted, repeating, ”Oh, I a soardens, which cause Cannes to resehway to Antibes, running along the seashore Forestier acted as guide He had already pointed out the villa of the Court de Paris, and now indicated others He was lively, with the forced and feeble gayety of a dooth to stretch out his aruerite, and the chateau fro us over that imental recollections recurred to him, and he mentioned various officers whose names recalled incidents to theht of the whole of the Golfe Juan, with the white village in the curve of the bay, and the point of Antibes at the further side of it Forestier, suddenly seized upon by childish glee, exclaimed, ”Ah! the squadron, you will see the squadron”
Indeed they could perceive, in the e shi+ps resee, strange,theh to take root beneath the waves One could scarcely iine how they could stir or move about, they see battery, circular and high out of water, reseht-houses that are built on shoals A tall three-master passed near theraceful and pretty beside these iron war monsters squatted on the water Forestier tried to make them out He pointed out the Colbert, the Suffren, the Admiral Duperre, the Redoubtable, the Devastation, and then checking himself, added, ”No I made a mistake; that one is the Devastation”
They arrived opposite a species of large pavilion, on the front of which was the inscription, ”Art Pottery of the Golfe Juan,” and the carriage, driving up the sweep, stopped before the door Forestier wanted to buy a couple of vases for his study As he felt unequal to getting out of the carriage, speciht out to hi a choice, and consulted his wife and Duroy
”You know,” he said, ”it is for the cabinet at the end of the study
Sitting in my chair, I have it before my eyes all the time I want an antique form, a Greek outline” He exaain to the first ones At length hepaid, insisted upon the articles being sent on at once ”I shall be going back to Paris in a few days,” he said
They drove home, but as they skirted the bay a rush of cold air froan to cough It was nothing at first, but it aug, and then a kind of gasping hiccough
Forestier was choking, and every tih see would soothe or check it He had to be borne fros, felt the jerking of his feet at each convulsion of his lungs The warmth of the bed did not check the attack, which lasted till th, narcotics lulled its deadly spas up in his bed, with his eyes open
The first words he uttered were to ask for the barber, for he insisted on being shaved every ot up for this operation, but had to be helped back into bed at once, and his breathing grew so short, so hard, and so difficult, that Madame Forestier, in alarain in order to beg hio for the doctor
He came back al drink and gave some advice; but when the journalist saw him to the door, in order to ask his real opinion, he said, ”It is the end He will be dead to- Break it to his poor wife, and send for a priest I, formore I am, however, entirely at your service”
Duroy sent for Mada,” said he ”The doctor advises a priest being sent for What would you like done?”
She hesitated for soh she had calculated everything, replied, ”Yes, that will be best--in many respects I will break it to hi or other; I really don't knohat You would be very kind if you would go and find a priest for me and pick one out Choose one on't raise too many difficulties over the business One ill be satisfied with confession, and will let us off with the rest of it all”
The young fellow returned with a complaisant old ecclesiastic, who accoone into the dying man's room, Madame Forestier ca
”It has quite upset him,” said she ”When I spoke to hihtful expression as if he had felt the breath--the breath of--you know He understood that it was all over at last, and that his hours were numbered” She was very pale as she continued, ”I shall never forget the expression of his face He certainly saw death face to face at that moment He saw him”
They could hear the priest, who spoke in so, ”No, no; you are not so bad as all that You are ill, but in no danger And the proof is that I have called in as a friend as a neighbor”
They could not make out Forestier's reply, but the old man went on, ”No, I will not ask you to communicate We will talk of that when you are better If you wish to profit bybetter I a a la silence followed Forestierin a faint voice Then all at once the priest uttered in a different tone, the tone of one officiating at the altar ”The mercy of God is infinite Repeat the Cootten it; I will help you
Repeat after ini'”
He paused fro man to catch hi wife and Duroy sat still seized on by a strange uneasiness, stirred by anxious expectation The invalid had iven way to guilty pleasures--of what kind, o down into the garden for a short time We must not listen to his secrets”
And they went and sat down on a bench before the door beneath a rose tree in bloom, and beside a bed of pinks, which shed their soft and powerful perfume abroad in the pure air Duroy, after a fewbefore you return to Paris?”
”Oh, no,” she replied ”As soon as it is all over I shall go back there”
”Within ten days?”
”Yes, at the most”
”He has no relations, then?”
”None except cousins His father and ”