Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 1.djvu/204

126 who are too proud to beg. But, madam, let us talk no more of broken legs—or rather, three words more. If you are going to take my new patient under your protection, order for her a better bed, a nurse to-morrow—the gossips will do well enough for to-day—broths, cough mixtures, etc. And it would not be a bad idea to send to her some kind-hearted priest, who will comfort her and mend her morals, as I have mended her leg. That young woman is nervous; we may have to meet sudden complications. You would be—yes, now that I think of it, you would be the very best comforter; but you have to adapt your sermons better. I am done. It is half after eight; for the love of God, go and get ready for the opera. Baptiste will bring me some coffee and the daily paper. I have been too busy to-day to learn what is going on in the world."

Several days passed, and the invalid was a little better. The doctor only complained that the moral excitement did not diminish.

"I have no great faith in any of your abbés," he said to Madame de Piennes. "If the sight of human suffering were not too repulsive to you, and I know that you have the courage, you could soothe the mind of that poor child better than any preacher of Saint Roch."