Conscience -- Volume 3

or suspicion, he spoke of Madame Dammauville, in whom he was interested incidentally; with

trative gestures, one could, if one had the patience to listen to him, make him say all that one wished; for he was convinced that his interlocutor passed an agreeable moment, whose remembrance would never be forgotten. His patients might wait in pain or anguish, he did not

sis was due, and consequently it was perfectly curable; even Balzajette

'? You know better than I that with women eve

tonishment that the fashionable women under his care h

hat shall I tell yo

lained what he had alre

esteem that he professed for his own merits and person, he vaguely felt that the doctors of his generation who were eminent did not treat him with all the consideration that he accorded himself, and in order to teach his ancient comrades a less

d not to profit by the 'coup de theatre' prepared by Nougarede; but for himself, he could only feel happy over it. In spite of all the precautions he had taken, it would be better not to expose himself to a meeting with Madame Dammauville in the witness-chamber,

of this interview. Balzajette said that Madame Dammauville would soon be on her feet, and one might have fait

om the Mazas cell had reconciled neither with hope nor wi

deposition, since the evening before she had been able to leave her bed; and although she left it for only an hour, and then to go from her bedroom to her parlor, that was enough. Nougarede

brought about, and under conditions that could not but affect him. Truly, the precautions he had taken should reassure him, but after all there remained no less a troublesome uncertainty. Who could tell? He preferred that sh

nd beard were gone, but his eyes of steel, as his friend said, still remained, and nothing could change them. He might wear blue eyeglasses, or injure himself in a chemical experim

day in the Rue Sainte-Anne with Madame Dammauville, came one evening in despair, and t

ould not g

d in yielding to it, and since he had not the force to shake it off, he was happy to be relieved from it by th

hing that I may suggest to Balzajette without his suspecting it. Besides, it is reasonable to believe that the recrudescence of cold that we are

ased as the time for the trial approached, it was not probabilities, any more than the uncertain influence of the spring, that Phill

she had succeed

came to tell him what she had learned, and for

able to lea

he made the

soon have a change; this frost and wind

ve moment; fate had been against him long enough, and he was not going to counteract it at the time when it seemed to take his

day, he knew at once by her manner that so

auville is u

N

by your vivacity and l

Dammauville wishe

ands roughly

one that!"

d at him

repeated with i

mured. "You will see that I have

ofessional dignity of

o listen to you;

t say

you should dispose of

cto

arried

you wish! You decide, and I have only to obey! There is too m

love, gave her strength. In her turn she took his hands, and alth

and I feel the weight of it on seeing how profoundly you are wounded; but to send me away, to tell me that all is over between us, no, Victor, you will not do that. You will no

ed her

e said

taking his hands that he had withd

ence. Even if I were a hundred times more guilty than I really am

G

s impossible that I, by my stupidity, through my fault, could put you

lty she might be towards him, it was evident that she could not admit that the fault she committed threw him into this acces

I am listening to you. Moreove