And no, you
can't have an idea of all the presents that the nurse wheedled out of me,
of all the money that I paid! It was ruination! And then, all at once, I
had just time to send for the boy, and he was brought back to me as thin
and pale and weak, as if he had never tasted good bread in his life. Two
months later he died in my arms. His father fell ill over it, and if we
hadn't been attached to one another, I think we should both have gone and
drowned ourselves."
Scarce wiping her eyes she feverishly returned to the threshold, and
again cast a passionate expectant glance towards the avenue. And when she
came back, having seen nothing, she resumed: "So you will understand our
emotion when, two years ago, though I was thirty-seven, I again had a
little boy. We were wild with delight, like a young married couple. But
what a lot of trouble and worry! We had to put the little fellow out to
nurse as we let the other one, since we could not possibly keep him here.
And even after swearing that he should not go to Rougemont we ended by
saying that we at least knew the place, and that he would not be worse
off there than elsewhere.
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