By degrees the girl recovered her composure, and again smiled.  She then explained that she now felt no pain, but that it had suddenly seemed to her as if a heavy paving-stone were lying on her chest; then this weight had melted away, leaving her better able to breathe.  And, indeed, she was soon on her feet once more, and finished giving her views respecting the decoration of the gallery, in such wise that the others ended by feeling reassured, and the afternoon passed away joyously in the making of all sorts of splendid plans.  Little was eaten at dinner, for they had done too much honor to the crawfish at noon.  And at nine o’clock, as soon as Celeste arrived for Andree, the gathering broke up.  Ambroise was returning to Paris that same evening.  Blaise and Denis were to take the seven o’clock train the following morning.  And Rose, after accompanying Madame Desvignes and her daughters to the road, called to them through the darkness:  “Au revoir, come back soon.”  She was again full of gayety at the thought of the general rendezvous which the family had arranged for the approaching weddings.

Neither Mathieu nor Marianne went to bed at once, however.  Though they did not even speak of it together, they thought that Rose looked very strange, as if, indeed, she were intoxicated.  She had again staggered on returning to the house, and though she only complained of some slight oppression, they prevailed on her to go to bed.  After she had retired to her room, which adjoined their own, Marianne went several times to see if she were well wrapped up and were sleeping peacefully, while Mathieu remained anxiously thoughtful beside the lamp.  At last the girl fell asleep, and the parents, leaving the door of communication open, then exchanged a few words in an undertone, in their desire to tranquillize each other.  It would surely be nothing; a good night’s rest would suffice to restore Rose to her wonted health.  Then in their turn they went to bed, the whole farm lapsed into silence, surrendering itself to slumber until the first cockcrow.  But all at once, about four o’clock, shortly before daybreak, a stifled call, “Mamma! mamma!” awoke both Mathieu and Marianne, and they sprang out of bed, barefooted, shivering, and groping for the candle.  Rose was again stifling, struggling against another attack of extreme violence.  For the second time, however, she soon regained consciousness and appeared relieved, and thus the parents, great as was their distress, preferred to summon nobody but to wait till daylight.  Their alarm was caused particularly by the great change they noticed in their daughter’s appearance; her face was swollen and distorted, as if some evil power had transformed her in the night.  But she fell asleep again, in a state of great prostration; and they no longer stirred for fear of disturbing her slumber.  They remained there watching and waiting, listening to the revival of life in the farm around them as the daylight gradually increased.