And he worshipped her, venerated her, and had retained of her the most chaste and passionate of recollections.
"O Sister Hyacinthe!" he murmured in delight.
Chance alone had brought them face to face again, for Ferrand was not a believer, and if he found himself in that train it was simply because he had at the last moment consented to take the place of a friend who was suddenly prevented from coming.

For nearly a twelvemonth he had been a house-surgeon at the Hospital of La Pitie.

However, this journey to Lourdes, in such peculiar circumstances, greatly interested him.
The joy of the meeting was making them forget the ailing stranger.

And so the Sister resumed: "You see, Monsieur Ferrand, it is for this man that we want you.

At one moment we thought him dead.