lifeless,
yielded to the examination without seemingly knowing why she was being
disturbed. A few rapid sentences were exchanged between the two
physicians. The old doctor murmured some words about amphoric
breathing, and a sound such as a cracked jar might give out.
Nevertheless, he still affected some hesitation, and spoke,
suggestively, of capillary bronchitis. Doctor Deberle hastened to
explain that an accidental cause had brought on the illness; doubtless
it was due to a cold; however, he had already noticed several times
that an anaemical tendency would produce chest diseases. Helene stood
waiting behind him.

"Listen to her breathing yourself," said Doctor Bodin, giving way to
Henri.

He leaned over the child, and seemed about to take hold of her. She
had not raised her eyelids; but lay there in self-abandonment,
consumed by fever. Her open nightdress displayed her childish breast,
where as yet there were but slight signs of coming womanhood; and
nothing could be more chaste or yet more harrowing than the sight of
this dawning maturity on which the Angel of Death had already laid his
hand. She had displayed no aversion when the old doctor had touched
her. But the moment Henri's fingers glanced against her body she
started as if she had received a shock. In a transport of shame she
awoke from the coma in which she had been plunged, and, like a maiden
in alarm, clasped her poor puny little arms over her bosom, exclaiming
the while in quavering tones: "Mamma! mamma!"

Then she opened her eyes, and on recognizing the man who was bending
over her, she was seized with terror. Sobbing with shame, she drew the
bed-cover over her bosom. It seemed as though she had grown older by
ten years during her short agony, and on the brink of death had
attained sufficient womanhood to understand that this man, above all
others, must not lay hands on her. She wailed out again in piteous
entreaty: "Mamma! mamma! I beseech you!"

Helene, who had hitherto not opened her lips, came close to Henri. Her
eyes were bent on him fixedly; her face was of marble. She touched
him, and merely said in a husky voice: "Go away!"

Doctor Bodin strove to appease Jeanne, who now shook with a fresh fit
of coughing. He assured her that nobody would annoy her again, that
every one would go away, to prevent her being disturbed.

"Go away," repeated Helene, in a deep whisper in her lover's ear. "You
see very well that we have killed her!"

Then, u