to, where both of them had
to thank Our Lady of Lourdes. Then they would be free; they would have
two long hours before them, and might walk wherever they chose, before
she returned to lunch and pack up her few things at the hospital.

"Well, is everyone ready?" repeated M. de Guersaint. "Shall we make a
move?"

Pierre took his hat, and all three went down-stairs, talking very loud
and laughing on the staircase, like boisterous school-boys going for
their holidays. They had almost reached the street, when at the doorway
Madame Majeste rushed forward. She had evidently been waiting for them to
go out.

"Ah! mademoiselle; ah! gentlemen, allow me to congratulate you," she
said. "We have heard of the extraordinary favour that has been granted
you; we are so happy, so much flattered, when the Blessed Virgin is
pleased to select one of our customers!"

Her dry, harsh face was melting with amiability, and she observed the
miraculously healed girl with the fondest of eyes. Then she impulsively
called her husband, who was passing: "Look, my dear! It's mademoiselle;
it's mademoiselle."

Majeste's clean-shaven face, puffed out with yellow fat, assumed a happy
and grateful expression. "Really, mademoiselle, I cannot tell you how
honoured we feel," said he. "We shall never forget that your papa put up
at our place. It has already excited the envy of many people."

While he spoke Madame Majeste stopped the other travellers who were going
out, and with a sign summoned the families already seated in the
dining-room; indeed, she would have called in the whole street if they
had given her time, to show that she had in her house the miracle at
which all Lourdes had been marvelling since the previous day. People
ended by collecting there, a crowd gathered little by little, while she
whispered in the ear of each "Look! that's she; the young party, you
know, the young party who--"

But all at once she exclaimed: "I'll go and fetch Apolline from the shop;
I must show mademoiselle to Apolline."

Thereupon, however, Majeste, in a very dignified way, restrained her.
"No," he said, "leave Apolline; she has three ladies to serve already.
Mademoiselle and these gentlemen will certainly not leave Lourdes without
making a few purchases. The little souvenirs that one carries away with
one are so pleasant to look at later on! And our customers make a point
of never buying elsewhere than here, in the shop which we have annexed to
the hotel."