"that she may
have air."

The girl looked at him as if she did not understand him. Oh! what shame
and humiliation were in that young heart!

Sanselme understood, for he said:

"She is your mother, I believe?"

She rose quickly and went to the bed, and leaning over the woman, kissed
her brow. This was her answer to Sanselme's question. She then loosened
the sick woman's garments. Feeling her child's hands, and able to
breathe better, the woman said:

"Do not touch me; I am in agony!"

That was the beginning of delirium.

"I am cold!" she cried. "Why do you put ice on my feet?" and she started
up so suddenly that her daughter could not hold her.

"Help me, sir," the girl cried to Sanselme.

He ran to her assistance. He was astonished to see that the woman was
not more than thirty-five, but her eyes were haggard, and she bore the
marks of precocious old age.

She uttered a shriek so wild and despairing that it curdled the blood in
Sanselme's veins, and as he looked her full in the face, he trembled
from head to foot.

The doors opened; it was the physician, who looked utterly disgusted
that he should have been called to such a place. He entered noisily,
without removing his hat, and as he caught sight of the sick woman,
looking like an inspired Pythoness, he said roughly:

"Come, now, lie down."

She looked at him with evident terror, and then, docile as a child, she
lay down on the bed.

The physician made a rapid examination.

"There is nothing to be done," he said; "this woman is at the end of her
rope."

"For Heaven's sake, sir, be quiet!" whispered Sanselme, angrily. "The
woman hears you, and you will kill her!"

The Doctor took off his spectacles and closed them with a snap; then
looking at Sanselme from head to foot, he said:

"You are much interested in Madame. A relative, I presume?"

"That is none of your affairs, sir. I beg you to confine yourself to
writing your prescriptions, and I will see that you are paid."

The physician was impressed by the tone in which these words were
uttered. He wrote the prescription and went away. Then Sanselme said he
would go for the medicine. He was absolutely livid and could hardly
stand. He returned in twenty minutes, and met the mistress of the house
on the street, where she was waiting.

"Look here!" she said; "I don't like all this in my house, and I am
going to bundle Zelda off to the Hospital. I don't want her to die
here."

Sanselme hardly