For a year or so
one might have thought her cured, but you see what has now become of her.
Ah! it ought not to be allowed! You are no doubt aware that they treated
Cecile just the same. And there was another, too, a baroness, whom you
must know. She called here the other day to see Euphrasie, and, upon my
word, I didn't recognize her. She used to be such a fine woman, and now
she looks a hundred years old. Yes, yes, I say that the doctors ought to
be sent to prison."
He was about to sit down to table when he stumbled against Euphrasie's
chair. She sat watching him with an anxious, semi-stupefied expression.
"There you are, in my way as usual!" said he; "one is always tumbling up
against you. Come, make a little room, do."
He did not seem to be a very terrible customer, but at the sound of his
voice she began to tremble, full of childish fear, as if she were
threatened with a thrashing. And this time she found strength enough to
drag her chair as far as a dark closet, the door of which was open. She
there sought refuge, ensconcing herself in the gloom, amid which one
could vaguely espy her shrunken, wrinkled face, which suggested that of
some very old great-grandmother, who was taking years and years to die.
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