Berthaud was no doubt right, this was the wife that he, Gerard, needed.
"Mademoiselle," said he to Raymonde, "shall I raise the young lady a little ?" "Thank you, monsieur, I am quite strong enough.

And besides I will give it to her in spoonfuls; that will be the better way." Marie, however, obstinately preserving her fierce silence as she recovered consciousness, refused the broth with a gesture.

She wished to be left in quietness, she did not want anybody to question her.

And it was only when the others had gone off smiling at one another, that she said to Pierre in a husky voice: "Has not my father come then ?" After hesitating for a moment the priest was obliged to confess the truth.

"I left him sleeping and he cannot have woke up." Then Marie relapsed into her state of languid stupor and dismissed him in his turn, with the gesture with which she declined all succour.