She
looked round, and did not feel at all surprised to see her mother
sitting by her bedside with a stout man whom she did not know. She had
forgotten how old she was, and thought she was a little child again, for
her memory was entirely gone.

"See, she is conscious," said the stout man.

The baroness began to cry, and the big man said:

"Come, come, madame le baronne; I assure you there is no longer any
danger, but you must not talk to her; just let her sleep."

It seemed to Jeanne that she lay for a long time in a doze, which became
a heavy sleep if she tried to think of anything. She had a vague idea
that the past contained something dreadful, and she was content to lie
still without trying to recall anything to her memory. But one day, when
she opened her eyes, she saw Julien standing beside the bed, and the
curtain which hid everything from her was suddenly drawn aside, and she
remembered what had happened.

She threw back the clothes and sprang out of bed to escape from her
husband; but as soon as her feet touched the floor she fell to the
ground, for she was too weak to stand. Julien hastened to her
assistance, but when he attempted to raise her, she shrieked and rolled
from side to side to avoid the contact of his hands. The door opened,
and Aunt Lison and the Widow Dentu hurried in, closely followed by the
baron and his wife, the latter gasping for breath.

They put Jeanne to bed again, and she closed her eyes and pretended to
be asleep that she might think undisturbed. Her mother and aunt busied
themselves around her, saying from time to time:

"Do you know us now, Jeanne, dear?"

She pretended not to hear them, and made no answer; and in the evening
they went away, leaving her to the care of the nurse. She could not
sleep all that night, for she was painfully trying to connect the
incidents she could remember, one with the other; but there seemed to be
gaps in her memory which she could not bridge over. Little by little,
however, all the facts came back to her, and then she tried to decide
what she had better do. She must have been very ill, or her mother and
Aunt Lison and the baron would not have been sent for; but what had
Julien said? Did her parents know everything? And where was Rosalie?

The only thing she could do was to go back to Rouen with her father and
mother; they could all live there together as they used to do, and it
would be just the same as if she had not been married.

The ne