'She left that ?' I murmured, a strange tumult of emotions in my breast.
'She laid it there,' my mother whispered.

'And she would have stopped him saying what he did'-- a shudder ran through my mother's frame at the remembrance of the man's words, though her eyes still gazed into mine with faith and confidence--'she would have stopped him, but she could not, Gaston.

And then he hurried her away.' 'He showed her a token, madame, did he not ?' I could not for my life repress the question, so much seemed to turn on the point.
'A bit of gold,' my mother whispered, smiling faintly.

'Now let me sleep.' And, clinging always to my hand, she closed her eyes.
The student came back soon afterwards with some comforts for which I had despatched him, and we sat by her until the evening fell, and far into the night.

It was a relief to me to learn from the leech that she had been ailing for some time, and that in any case the end must have come soon.