d face showing above his scraggy shoulders. He concealed his
tears by blowing his nose loudly from time to time. The danger in
which he saw his little friend lying wrought such havoc within him
that his poor were for the time wholly forgotten.

But it was useless for the two brothers to retire to the other end of
the room; Jeanne was still conscious of their presence. They were a
source of vexation to her, and she would turn round with a harassed
look, even though drowsy with fever. Her mother bent over her to catch
the words trembling on her lips.

"Oh! mamma, I feel so ill. All this is choking me; send everybody away
--quick, quick!"

Helene with the utmost gentleness then explained to the two brothers
the child's wish to fall asleep; they understood her meaning, and
quitted the room with drooping heads. And no sooner had they gone than
Jeanne breathed with greater freedom, cast a glance round the chamber,
and once more fixed a look of infinite tenderness on her mother and
the doctor.

"Good-night," she whispered; "I feel well again; stay beside me."

For three weeks she thus kept them by her side. Henri had at first
paid two visits each day, but soon he spent the whole night with them,
giving every hour he could spare to the child. At the outset he had
feared it was a case of typhoid fever; but so contradictory were the
symptoms that he soon felt himself involved in perplexity. There was
no doubt he was confronted by a disease of the chlorosis type,
presenting the greatest difficulty in treatment, with the possibility
of very dangerous complications, as the child was almost on the
threshold of womanhood. He dreaded first a lesion of the heart and
then the setting in of consumption. Jeanne's nervous excitement,
wholly beyond his control, was a special source of uneasiness; to such
heights of delirium did the fever rise, that the strongest medicines
were of no avail. He brought all his fortitude and knowledge to bear
on the case, inspired with the one thought that his own happiness and
life were at stake. On his mind there had now fallen a great
stillness; not once during those three anxious weeks did his passion
break its bonds. Helene's breath no longer woke tremors within him,
and when their eyes met they were only eloquent of the sympathetic
sadness of two souls threatened by a common misfortune.

Nevertheless every moment brought their hearts nearer. They now lived
only with the one idea. No sooner had he e