Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/106

82 him. It will be observed in the sequel that there was in this attachment a profounder and more providential influence than that of a simple case of auto-suggestion.

"How tall he must be now! And strong! And handsome!" the two women would surmise. They described him to each other mutually, the one supplying flattering retouches to the image that the other sketched. H ow Blandine longed to see him! She even languished in waiting. And lo! bad news comes from Switzerland at the moment of the vacations which were to send him back to his grandmother. Henry had fallen ill. Never had Blandine known such misgivings. She would have flown to the schoolboy's bed, had she not been detained by the side of his grandparent, hanging between life and death as long as her grandson was in danger. Then what jubilation when Blandine learned the recovery of the young man!

The prospect of the return to his country home of this pampered child rendered Blandine not the less anxious of the two women. She counted the days and even, in a sort of puerile way, struck them out on the calendar as they passed, just as the