One dared not even open this window to admit a little fresh air, for it was no sooner set ajar than a crowd of inquisitive heads peeped in.

The furniture was of a very rudimentary kind, consisting simply of two deal tables of unequal height placed end to end and not even covered with a cloth; together with a kind of big "canterbury" littered with untidy papers, sets of documents, registers and pamphlets, and finally some thirty rush-seated chairs placed here and there over the floor and a couple of ragged arm-chairs usually reserved for the patients.
Doctor Bonamy at once hastened forward to greet Doctor Chassaigne, who was one of the latest and most glorious conquests of the Grotto.

He found a chair for him and, bowing to Pierre's cassock, also made the young priest sit down.

Then, in the tone of extreme politeness which was customary with him, he exclaimed: "_Mon cher confrere_, you will kindly allow me to continue.

We were just examining mademoiselle." He referred to a deaf peasant girl of twenty, who was seated in one of the arm-chairs.