not
even one faint encouraging cry. I turned to Doctor Pollain, shaking my
head.

"But no!" he exclaimed. "For an eight-months child, look you--he has
vigor! I am sure he will live."

"Then, for his father's sake," I replied, "we must take no chances!
Isn't there a maternity hospital in the neighborhood where he can
receive the close attention that you, madame, at your age, with your
responsibilities, ought not to be expected to give? I make myself fully
responsible for any and all charges involved. Understand me, madame, and
you, M. le Medecin, I insist that no stone shall be left unturned!"

These words produced, at once a grateful change in the
atmosphere--hitherto, I had felt, ever so slightly hostile. It is
unnecessary to follow our further negotiations to their entirely
amicable close. Half an hour later I left the shop of the Widow Guyot,
satisfied that Doctor Pollain would assist her to make all needful
arrangements, and promising to get into communication as soon as it
could be managed with "M. Jee-mee." I should return, I told them,
certainly, before noon.

But for Jimmy's sake, on leaving, I raised a corner of the sheet
covering the face of Jeanne-Marie. It was a peaceful face. If she had
lately suffered, death now had quietly smoothed from her all but a
lasting restfulness. A good little woman, I mused, of the best type
provincial France offers; sensible, yet ardent; practical, yet kind. As
I looked down at her, the meaningless smile of the bisque Madonna in the
shop without returned to me, simpered for a half-second before me....
The symbols men made--and sold--commercial symbols! The Mother of
Sorrows, a Chinese toy! Well....

"One thing troubles me," said the Widow Guyot at my elbow, in her
husky, passionless voice: "She did not receive the last rites, m'sieu.
When the bad turn came, it was not possible for us to leave her. You
will understand that. There was a new life, was there not? Assuredly,
though, I am troubled; I regret that this should have happened to _me_.
It will be a great cause for scandal, m'sieu--when you consider my
connections--the nature of my little affairs. But, name of God, that
will pass; one explains these things with a certain success, and my age
favors me. I bear, God be praised, a good name; and in the proper
quarters, m'sieu. But--the poor little one! Observe m'sieu, that she
clasps a crucifix on her breast. Be so good as to remember that I placed
it in her hands--an ins