I no longer feel any pain at all." Pierre made a gesture from which it might have been thought that he was delighted with the power exercised by the Blessed Virgin.

But he was still tortured by doubt.

What unknown force had acted in this case?
Or rather what faulty medical diagnosis, what assemblage of errors and exaggerations, had ended in this fine tale?
All the patients, however, wished to see the miraculous foot, that outward and visible sign of the divine cure which each of them was going in search of.

And it was Marie, sitting up in her box, and already feeling less pain, who touched it first.

Then Madame Maze, quite roused from her melancholy, passed it on to Madame Vincent, who would have kissed it for the hope which it restored to her.