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breathing will do me good.’
‘Give me your hand,’ said the doctor.
She stretched out her arm, and exclaimed with a
laugh:—
‘Ah, hold! in truth, you did not know it; I am cured; Co-
sette will arrive to-morrow.’
The doctor was surprised; she was better; the pressure on
her chest had decreased; her pulse had regained its strength;
a sort of life had suddenly supervened and reanimated this
poor, worn-out creature.
‘Doctor,’ she went on, ‘did the sister tell you that M. le
Maire has gone to get that mite of a child?’
The doctor recommended silence, and that all pain-
ful emotions should be avoided; he prescribed an infusion
of pure chinchona, and, in case the fever should increase
again during the night, a calming potion. As he took his
departure, he said to the sister:—
‘She is doing better; if good luck willed that the may-
or should actually arrive to-morrow with the child, who
knows? there are crises so astounding; great joy has been
known to arrest maladies; I know well that this is an organ-
ic disease, and in an advanced state, but all those things are
such mysteries: we may be able to save her.’