fe of our dear
Father Rodin."

The three black-gowns cast up their eyes piously, and then bowed
altogether, like one man. Rodin, indifferent to what was passing around
him, never ceased an instant to write or reflect. Nevertheless, in spite
of his apparent calmness, he felt such difficulty in breathing, that
more than once Dr. Baleinier had turned round uneasily, as he heard the
stifled rattling in the throat of the sick man. Making a sign to his
pupil, the doctor approached Rodin and said to him: "Come, reverend
father; this is the important moment. Courage!"

No sign of alarm was expressed in the Jesuit's countenance. His features
remained impassible as those of a corpse. Only, his little reptile eyes
sparkled still more brightly in their dark cavities. For a moment,
he looked round at the spectators of this scene; then, taking his pen
between his teeth, he folded and wafered another letter, placed it on
the table beside the bed, and nodded to Dr. Baleinier, as if to say: "I
am ready."

"You must take off your flannel waistcoat, and your shirt, father."
Rodin hesitated an instant, and the doctor resumed: "It is absolutely
necessary, father."

Aided by Baleinier, Rodin obeyed, whilst the doctor added, no doubt to
spare his modesty: "We shall only require the chest, right and left, my
dear father."

And now, Rodin, stretched upon his back, with his dirty night-cap still
on his head, exposed the upper part of a livid trunk, or rather, the
bony cage of a skeleton, for the shadows of the ribs and cartilages
encircled the skin with deep, black lines. As for the arms, they
resembled bones twisted with cord and covered with tanned parchment.

"Come, M. Rousselet, the apparatus!" said Baleinier.

Then addressing the three Jesuits, he added: "Please draw near,
gentlemen; what you have to do is very simple, as you will see."

It was indeed very simple. The doctor gave to each of his four
assistants a sort of little steel tripod about two inches in diameter
and three in height; the circular centre of this tripod was filled with
cotton; the instrument was held in the left hand by means of a wooden
handle. In the right hand each assistant held a small tin tube about
eighteen inches long; at one end was a mouthpiece to receive the lips
of the operator, and the other spread out so as to form a cover to the
little tripod. These preparations had nothing alarming in them. Father
d'Aigrigny and the prelate, who looked on from a