hat she needed to be
physically exhausted in order to be calm.

So in the old workroom life continued in the same regular way, as if
their hearts had not even for a moment beaten more quickly than usual.
Whilst Hubert occupied himself with arranging the frames, or drew
the patterns, or stretched or relaxed the materials, Hubertine helped
Angelique, both of them having their hands terribly tired and bruised
when evening came. For the angels and the ornaments it had been
necessary at the beginning to divide each subject into several parts,
which were treated separately. In order to perfect the most salient
points, Angelique first took spools of coarse unbleached thread,
which she re-covered with the strong thread of Brittany in a contrary
direction; and as the need came, making use of a heavy pair of shears,
as well as of a roughing-chisel, she modelled these threads, shaped the
drapery of the angels, and detached the details of the ornaments. In all
this there was a real work of sculpture. At last, when the desired form
was obtained, with the aid of Hubertine she threw on masses of gold
thread, which she fastened down with little stitches of silk. Thus there
was a bas-relief of gold, incomparably soft and bright, shining like a
sun in the centre of this dark, smoky room. The old tools were arranged
in the same lines as they had been for centuries--the punches, the
awls, the mallets, and the hammers; on the work-frame the little donkey
waste-basket and the tinsel, the thimbles and the needles, moved up
and down as usual, while in the different corners, where they ended by
growing rusty, the diligent, the hand spinning-wheel, and the reel for
winding, seemed to sleep in the peaceful quiet which entered through the
open window.

Days passed. Angelique broke many needles between morning and evening,
so difficult was it to sew down the gold, through the thickness of
the waxed threads. To have seen her, one would have said she was so
thoroughly absorbed by her hard work that she could think of nothing
else. At nine o'clock she was exhausted by fatigue, and, going to bed,
she sank at once into a heavy, dreamless sleep. When her embroidery gave
her mind a moment's leisure, she was astonished not to see Felicien.
Although she took no step towards seeking him, it seemed to her that he
ought to have tried every possible way to come to her. Yet she approved
of his wisdom in acting as he did, and would have scolded him had
he tried