Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 1.djvu/201

Rh What is worse is that the sauce for the turbot is completely dried up. I have fears for the roast, and we shall miss the first act of 'Othello.'"

"And that poor girl, did she tell you what drove her to"

"Oh! I never listen to those stories, madam. I ask them: 'When did you eat last, etc., etc.?'—because that is important for the treatment. Zounds! when one kills himself it is for some bad reason. A lover leaves you, a landlord turns you out of doors; one jumps from the window to be revenged. But one is no sooner in the air than he repents of it."

"She is repentant, I hope, the poor child?"

"Doubtless, doubtless. She wept and made noise enough to deafen me. Baptiste is a famous assistant, madam; he was much better than a medical student who was there, and who scratched his head, not knowing where to begin. The saddest thing in her case is that she escapes death by suicide only to die of consumption; for that she is a consumptive I would take my oath. I did not auscultate, but the facies never deceives me. To be in such haste, when one has only to wait so short a time!"

"You will see her to-morrow, doctor, will you not?"

"Certainly, if you wish me to. I assured