In an instant Henri vanished into the window-recess, concealed by the blue velvet curtain; but it was in vain, the child still kept up her pitiful cry:  “Oh, mamma! mamma!  I suffer so much.”

“I am here beside you, my darling; where do you feel the pain?”

“I don’t know.  Oh, see, it is here!  Oh, it is scorching me!” With eyes wide open and features distorted, she pressed her little hands to her bosom.  “It came on me in a moment.  I was asleep, wasn’t I?  But I felt something like a burning coal.”

“But it’s all gone now.  You’re not pained any longer, are you?”

“Yes, yes, I feel it still.”

She glanced uneasily round the room.  She was now wholly awake; the sullen gloom crept over her face once more, and her cheeks became livid.

“Are you by yourself, mamma?” she asked.

“Of course I am, my darling!”

Nevertheless Jeanne shook her head and gazed about, sniffing the air, while her agitation visibly increased.  “No, you’re not; I know you’re not.  There’s some one—­Oh, mamma!  I’m afraid, I’m afraid!  You are telling me a story; you are not by yourself.”

She fell back in bed in an hysterical fit, sobbing loudly and huddling herself beneath the coverlet, as though to ward off some danger.  Helene, crazy with alarm, dismissed Henri without delay, despite his wish to remain and look after the child.  But she drove him out forcibly, and on her return clasped Jeanne in her arms, while the little one gave vent to the one pitiful cry, with every utterance of which her sobbing was renewed louder than ever:  “You don’t love me any more!  You don’t love me any more!”

“Hush, hush, my angel! don’t say that,” exclaimed the mother in agony.  “You are all the world to me.  You’ll see yet whether I love you or not.”

She nursed her until the morning broke, intent on yielding up to her all her heart’s affections, though she was appalled at realizing how completely the love of herself possessed this darling child.  Next day she deemed a consultation necessary.  Doctor Bodin, dropping in as though by chance, subjected the patient with many jokes to a careful examination; and a lengthy discussion ensued between him and Doctor Deberle, who had remained in the adjacent room.  Both readily agreed that there were no serious symptoms apparent at the moment, but they were afraid of complex developments, and cross-questioned Helene for some time.  They realized that they were dealing with one of those nervous affections which have a family history, and set medical skill at defiance.  She told them, what they already partly knew, that her grandmother[*] was confined in the lunatic asylum of Les Tulettes at a short distance from Plassans, and that her mother had died from galloping consumption, after many years of brain affection and hysterical fits.  She herself took more after her father; she had his features and the same gravity of temperament.  Jeanne, on the other hand, was the facsimile of her grandmother; but she never would have her strength, commanding figure, or sturdy, bony frame.  The two doctors enjoined on her once more that the greatest care was requisite.  Too many precautions could not be taken in dealing with chloro-anaemical affections, which tend to develop a multitude of dangerous diseases.