At times Helene rose on tiptoe to fetch the medicine, to turn up the lamp, or give some order to Rosalie; while the doctor, whose eyes never quitted her, would sign to her to walk gently.  And when she had sat down again they smiled at one another.  Not a word was spoken; all their interest was concentrated on Jeanne, who was to them as their love itself.  Sometimes when the coverlet was being pulled up, or the child’s head was being raised, their hands met and rested together in sweet forgetfulness.  This undesigned, stealthy caress was the only one in which they indulged.

“I am not sleeping,” murmured Jeanne.  “I know very well you are there.”

On hearing her speak they were overjoyed.  Their hands parted; beyond this they had no desires.  The improvement in the child’s condition was to them satisfaction and peace.

“Are you feeling better, my darling?” asked Helene, when she saw her stirring.

Jeanne made no immediate reply, and when she spoke it was dreamingly.

“Oh, yes!  I don’t feel anything now.  But I can hear you, and that pleases me.”

After the lapse of a moment, she opened her eyes with an effort and looked at them.  Then an angelic smile crossed her face, and her eyelids dropped once more.

On the morrow, when the Abbe and Monsieur Rambaud made their appearance, Helene gave way to a shrug of impatience.  They were now a disturbing element in her happy nest.  As they went on questioning her, shaking with fear lest they might receive bad tidings, she had the cruelty to reply that Jeanne was no better.  She spoke without consideration, driven to this strait by the selfish desire of treasuring for herself and Henri the bliss of having rescued Jeanne from death, and of alone knowing this to be so.  What was their reason for seeking a share in her happiness?  It belonged to Henri and herself, and had it been known to another would have seemed to her impaired in value.  To her imagination it would have been as though a stranger were participating in her love.

The priest, however, approached the bed.

“Jeanne, ’tis we, your old friends.  Don’t you know us?”

She nodded gravely to them in recognition, but she was unwilling to speak to them; she was in a thoughtful mood, and she cast a look full of meaning on her mother.  The two poor men went away more heartbroken than on any previous evening.

Three days later Henri allowed his patient her first boiled egg.  It was a matter of the highest importance.  Jeanne’s mind was made up to eat it with none present but her mother and the doctor, and the door must be closed.  As it happened, Monsieur Rambaud was present at the moment; and when Helene began to spread a napkin, by way of tablecloth, on the bed, the child whispered in her ear:  “Wait a moment—­when he has gone.”

And as soon as he had left them she burst out:  “Now, quick! quick!  It’s far nicer when there’s nobody but ourselves.”