And he now witnessed a repetition of the scene which had already been enacted in his presence.

Doctor Bonamy began giving detailed explanations to the little fair-haired gentleman, who displayed great attention.

The case, said the doctor, had been one of caries of the bones of the left heel, with a commencement of necrosis necessitating excision; and yet the frightful, suppurating sore had been healed in a minute at the first immersion in the piscina.
"Tell the gentlemen how it happened, Sophie," he added.
The little girl made her usual pretty gesture as a sign to everybody to be attentive.

And then she began: "Well, it was like this; my foot was past cure, I couldn't even go to church any more, and it had to be kept bandaged because there was always a lot of matter coming from it.
Monsieur Rivoire, the doctor, who had made a cut in it so as to see inside it, said that he should be obliged to take out a piece of the bone; and that, sure enough, would have made me lame for life.

But when I got to Lourdes, and had prayed a great deal to the Blessed Virgin, I went to dip my foot in the water, wishing so much that I might be cured, that I did not even take the time to pull the bandages off.