, cheerful property, and there had been much
feasting and revelry there not long before. It had been laid out for
the famous singer who had sold it to Jenkins, and it exhibited traces
of the imaginative genius peculiar to the operatic stage, in the bridge
across the pond, where there was a sunken wherry filled with
water-soaked leaves, and in its summer-house, all of rockwork, covered
with climbing ivy. It had seen some droll sights, had that
summer-house, in the singer's time, and now it saw some sad ones, for
the infirmary was located there.

To tell the truth, the whole establishment was simply one huge
infirmary. The children fell sick as soon as they arrived, languished
and finally died unless their parents speedily removed them to the safe
shelter of their homes. The cure of Nanterre went so often to Bethlehem
with his black vestments and his silver crucifix, the undertaker had so
many orders for coffins for the house, that it was talked about in the
neighborhood, and indignant mothers shook their fists at the model
nursery, but only at a safe distance if they happened to have in their
arms a little pink and white morsel of humanity to shelter from all the
contagions of that spot. That was what gave the miserable place such a
heart-rending look. A house where children die cannot be cheerful; it
is impossible for the trees to bloom there, or the birds to nest, or
the water to flow in laughing ripples of foam.

The institution seemed to be fairly inaugurated. Jenkins' idea,
excellent in theory, was extremely difficult, almost impracticable, in
practice. And yet God knows that the affair had been carried through
with an excess of zeal as to every detail, even the most trifling, and
that all the money and attendants necessary were forthcoming. At the
head of the establishment was one of the most skilful men in the
profession, M. Pondevez, a graduate of the Paris hospitals; and
associated with him, to take more direct charge of the children, a
trustworthy woman, Madame Polge. Then there were maids and seamstresses
and nurses. And how perfectly everything was arranged and systematized,
from the distribution of the water through fifty faucets, to the
omnibus with its driver in the Bethlehem livery, going to the station
at Rueil to meet every train, with a great jingling of bells. And the
magnificent goats, goats from Thibet, with long silky coats and
bursting udders. Everything was beyond praise in the organization of