, the man of desperate expedients, was scrutinizing the Magic
Skin.

"I should very much like to be a witness of the coincidence of its
retrenchment with your wish," he said to the Marquis.

"Where is the use?" cried Brisset.

"Where is the use?" echoed Cameristus.

"Ah, you are both of the same mind," replied Maugredie.

"The contraction is perfectly simple," Brisset went on.

"It is supernatural," remarked Cameristus.

"In short," Maugredie made answer, with affected solemnity, and handing
the piece of skin to Raphael as he spoke, "the shriveling faculty of the
skin is a fact inexplicable, and yet quite natural, which, ever since
the world began, has been the despair of medicine and of pretty women."

All Valentin's observation could discover no trace of a feeling for his
troubles in any of the three doctors. The three received every answer
in silence, scanned him unconcernedly, and interrogated him
unsympathetically. Politeness did not conceal their indifference;
whether deliberation or certainty was the cause, their words at any
rate came so seldom and so languidly, that at times Raphael thought
that their attention was wandering. From time to time Brisset, the
sole speaker, remarked, "Good! just so!" as Bianchon pointed out the
existence of each desperate symptom. Cameristus seemed to be deep in
meditation; Maugredie looked like a comic author, studying two queer
characters with a view to reproducing them faithfully upon the stage.
There was deep, unconcealed distress, and grave compassion in Horace
Bianchon's face. He had been a doctor for too short a time to be
untouched by suffering and unmoved by a deathbed; he had not learned to
keep back the sympathetic tears that obscure a man's clear vision
and prevent him from seizing like the general of an army, upon the
auspicious moment for victory, in utter disregard of the groans of dying
men.

After spending about half an hour over taking in some sort the measure
of the patient and the complaint, much as a tailor measures a young man
for a coat when he orders his wedding outfit, the authorities uttered
several commonplaces, and even talked of politics. Then they decided to
go into Raphael's study to exchange their ideas and frame their verdict.

"May I not be present during the discussion, gentlemen?" Valentin had
asked them, but Brisset and Maugredie protested against this, and, in
spite of their patient's entreaties, declined altogether to deliberate
in