Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 5.djvu/28

10 real flirt, and will drive him off his head, so that he will be in his mother's state."

"Indeed, then her ladyship is . .. an invalid?"

"She is mad, my dear sir, mad; and I was even madder to come here!"

"Let us hope that your able attentions will restore her to reason."

The doctor shook his head, and looked attentively at the colour of the glass of Bordeaux which he held in his hand.

"The man you see before you. Professor, was once surgeon-major in the Kalouga regiment. At Sevastopol we cut off arms and legs from morning till night; not to speak of bombs which came down among us as thick as flies on a galled horse. But, though I was then ill-lodged and ill-fed, I was not so bored as I am here, where I eat and drink of the best, am lodged like a prince, and paid like a Court physician. . .. But liberty, my dear sir! . .. As you can guess, with this she-dragon I have not a moment to call my own."

"Has she been under your care for long? "

"Less than two years; but she has been insane at least twenty-seven, since before the birth of the Count. Did no one tell you this either at Rosienie or Kowno? Listen, then, for it is