“I repeat her words, to which I paid great attention in order not to forget them:  ’I am promised that I shall be better next year, but who can tell?  I will urge my doctor to give me an answer, and when you come again I will tell you what he says.’  Profiting by the door that she opened to me, I kept the conversation on this doctor.  It seems to me, but I am not certain, that she has but little confidence in him.  He was the classmate of her husband and of her brother-in-law the notary; he is the friend of every one, curing those who can be cured, or letting them die by accident.  You see what kind of a doctor he is.”

“I told you I knew him.”

“See if I deceive myself, and to what I tell you, add what you already know.  Frightened to see in whose hands she is, I undertook to find out, and finished by learning—­without asking her directly—­that she has seen no other physician during the year.  When she was taken with paralysis a consultation was held, and she has had Doctor Balzajette ever since.  She says he is very kind, and takes care of her as well as another would.”

Saniel improved the opportunity to refer to his stupidity in frankly expressing his opinion on the solemn Balzajette.

“It is probable,” he said.

“It is certain?  Do you believe that during one year nothing has appeared in Madame Dammauville’s disease that should demand new treatment?  Do you think the solemn Balzajette is incapable of finding it all by himself?”

“He is not so dull as you suppose.”

“It is you who speak of dulness.”

“To diagnose a disease and to treat it are two things.  It is the consultation you speak of that settled the question of Madame Dammauville’s disease, and prescribed the treatment that Balzajette had only to apply; and his capacity, I assure you, is sufficient for this task.”

As she appeared but little reassured, he persisted, for it would be an imprudence to let Phillis become enamored of the idea that if he attended Madame Dammauville, he would cure her, even if it required a miracle.

“We have some time before us, since the ‘ordonnance de renvoi’ before the assizes is not yet given out.  Madame Dammauville has promised to question her doctor, to learn if he hopes to put her in condition to leave her bed soon.  Let us wait, therefore.”

“Would it not be better to act than to wait?”

“At least let us wait for news from Balzajette.  Either it will be satisfactory, and then we shall have nothing to do, or it will not be, and in that case I promise you to see Balzajette.  I know him well enough to speak to him of your patient, which, above all, enables me, in making your brother intervene, to interest myself openly in his reestablishment.”

“O dearest, dearest!” she murmured, in a spirit of gratitude.

“You cannot doubt my devotion to you first, and to your brother afterward.  You asked me an impossible thing, that I was obliged to refuse, to my regret, precisely because it was impossible; but you know that I am yours, and will do all I can for your family.”