The rain was still falling.  What hour might it be now?  Jeanne could not have told.  Perhaps the clock had ceased going.  It seemed to her too great a fatigue to turn round.  It was surely at least a week since her mother had quitted her.  She had abandoned all expectation of her return; she was resigned to the prospect of never seeing her again.  Then she became oblivious of everything—­the wrongs which had been done her, the pain which she had just experienced, even the loneliness in which she was suffered to remain.  A weight, chilly like stone, fell upon her.  This only was certain:  she was very unhappy—­ah! as unhappy as the poor little waifs to whom she gave alms as they huddled together in gateways.  Ah!  Heaven! how coughing racked one, and how penetrating was the cold when there was no nobody to love one!  She closed her heavy eyelids, succumbing to a feverish stupor; and the last of her thoughts was a vague memory of childhood, of a visit to a mill, full of yellow wheat, and of tiny grains slipping under millstones as huge as houses.

Hours and hours passed away; each minute was a century.  The rain beat down without ceasing, with ever the same tranquil flow, as though all time and eternity were allowed it to deluge the plain.  Jeanne had fallen asleep.  Close by, her doll still sat astride the iron window-bar; and, with its legs in the room and its head outside, its nightdress clinging to its rosy skin, its eyes glaring, and its hair streaming with water, it looked not unlike a drowned child; and so emaciated did it appear in its comical yet distressing posture of death, that it almost brought tears of pity to the eyes.  Jeanne coughed in her sleep; but now she never once opened her eyes.  Her head swayed to and fro on her crossed arms, and the cough spent itself in a wheeze without awakening her.  Nothing more existed for her.  She slept in the darkness.  She did not even withdraw her hand, from whose cold, red fingers bright raindrops were trickling one by one into the vast expanse which lay beneath the window.  This went on for hours and hours.  Paris was slowly waning on the horizon, like some phantom city; heaven and earth mingled together in an indistinguishable jumble; and still and ever with unflagging persistency did the grey rain fall.

CHAPTER XXI.

Night had long gathered in when Helene returned.  From her umbrella the water dripped on step after step, whilst clinging to the balusters she ascended the staircase.  She stood for a few seconds outside her door to regain her breath; the deafening rush of the rain still sounded in her ears; she still seemed to feel the jostling of hurrying foot-passengers, and to see the reflections from the street-lamps dancing in the puddles.  She was walking in a dream, filled with the surprise of the kisses that had been showered upon her; and as she fumbled for her key she believed that her bosom felt neither remorse nor joy.  Circumstances had compassed it all; she could have done naught to prevent it.  But the key was not to be found; it was doubtless inside, in the pocket of her other gown.  At this discovery her vexation was intense; it seemed as though she were denied admission to her own home.  It became necessary that she should ring the bell.