434 Les Miserables
‘Well,’ resumed the nun, ‘now that you are happy, mind
me, and do not talk any more.’
Fantine laid her head on her pillow and said in a low
voice: ‘Yes, lie down again; be good, for you are going to
have your child; Sister Simplice is right; every one here is
rig ht.’
And then, without stirring, without even moving her
head, she began to stare all about her with wide-open eyes
and a joyous air, and she said nothing more.
The sister drew the curtains together again, hoping that
she would fall into a doze. Between seven and eight o’clock
the doctor came; not hearing any sound, he thought Fan-
tine was asleep, entered softly, and approached the bed on
tiptoe; he opened the curtains a little, and, by the light of the
taper, he saw Fantine’s big eyes gazing at him.
She said to him, ‘She will be allowed to sleep beside me in
a little bed, will she not, sir?’
The doctor thought that she was delirious. She added:—
‘See! there is just room.’
The doctor took Sister Simplice aside, and she explained
matters to him; that M. Madeleine was absent for a day or
two, and that in their doubt they had not thought it well
to undeceive the invalid, who believed that the mayor had
gone to Montfermeil; that it was possible, after all, that her
guess was correct: the doctor approved.
He returned to Fantine’s bed, and she went on:—
‘You see, when she wakes up in the morning, I shall be
able to say good morning to her, poor kitten, and when I
cannot sleep at night, I can hear her asleep; her little gentle