Volume VI Part 25 (2/2)

They both watched a butterfly sipping existence fro fros, which continued to flap slohen he alighted on a flower They remained silent for a considerable time

The servant came to inform theether

Forestier seerown still thinner since the day before The priest held out his hand to hiain to-,” and took his departure

As soon as he had left the roo for breath, strove to hold out his two hands to his wife, and gasped, ”Save , I don't want to die--I don't want to die Oh! save me--tell me what I had better do; send for the doctor I will take whatever you like I won't die--I won't die”

He wept Big tears streamed from his eyes down his fleshless cheeks, and the corners of his mouth contracted like those of a vexed child Then his hands, falling back on the bed clothes, began a slow, regular, and continuousoff the sheet

His wife, who began to cry too, said: ”No, no, it is nothing It is only a passing attack, you will be better to- out yesterday”

Forestier's breathing was shorter than that of a dog who has been running, so quick that it could not be counted, so faint that it could scarcely be heard

He kept repeating: ”I don't want to die Oh! God--God--God; what is to beco any more Oh!

God”

He saw before hi eyes reflected the terror it inspired His two hands continued their horrible and wearisome action All at once he started with a sharp shudder that could be seen to thrill the whole of his body, and jerked out the words, ”The graveyard--I--Oh! God”

He said no

Ti convent Duroy left the room to eat a mouthful or two He came back an hour later

Mada The invalid had not stirred

He still continued to draw his thin fingers along the sheet as though to pull it up over his face

His as seated in an armchair at the foot of the bed Duroy took another beside her, and they waited in silence A nurse had co near the

Duroy hi was happening He opened his eyes just in ti out A faint rattle stirred in the throat of the dying man, and two streaks of blood appeared at the corners of his mouth, and then flowed down into his shi+rt His hands ceased their hideous motion He had ceased to breathe

His wife understood this, and uttering a kind of shriek, she fell on her knees sobbing, with her face buried in the bed-clothes George, surprised and scared, n of the cross The nurse awakened, drew near the bed ”It is all over,” said she

Duroy, as recovering his self-possession, h of relief: ”It was sooner over than I thought for”

When the first shock was over and the first tears shed, they had to busy themselves with all the cares and all the necessary steps a dead htfall He was very hungry when he got back Madame Forestier ate a little, and then they both installed themselves in the chaht-table beside a plate filled with holy water, in which lay a sprig ofof consecrated box

They were alone, the youngwife, beside hi and watching

George, whom the darkness rendered uneasy in presence of the corpse, kept his eyes on this persistently His eye and his mind were both attracted and fascinated by this fleshless visage, which the vacillating light caused to appear yet more hollow That was his friend Charles Forestier, as chatting with hi was this end of a hu! Oh! how he recalled the words of Norbert de Varenne haunted by the fear of death: ”No one ever comes back” Millions on millions would be born almost identical, with eyes, a nose, a mouth, a skull and a mind within it, without he who lay there on the bed ever reappearing again

For sohed, loved, hoped like all the world And it was all over for hi One is born, one grows up, one is happy, one waits, and then one dies Farewell, ain to earth Plants, beast,to life, and then die to be transformed anew But never one of thee, confused, and crushi+ng sense of terror weighed down the soul of Duroy, the terror of that boundless and inevitable annihilation destroying all existence He already bowed his head before its ht of the flies who live a few hours, the beasts who live a few days, the men who live a few years, the worlds which live a few centuries What was the difference between one and the other? A few more days' dawn that was all

He turned away his eyes in order no longer to have the corpse before them Madame Forestier, with bent head, seehts Her fair hair showed so prettily with her pale face, that a feeling, sweet as the touch of hope flitted through the young fellow's breast Why grieve when he had still so an to observe her Lost in thought she did not notice hi in life, to love, to hold the woman one loves in one's arms That is the limit of human happiness”