remarkable; she could dust, sweep, scrub, hammer, all
day long and never experience fatigue; walls were rubbed down, windows
opened and washed, furniture drawn forth from dusty armoires and
cupboards raked out--and still the work went on, each day bringing to
light some dark, unfamiliar nook, some unexplored room or closet. At
Poussette's she never worked at all; sensitiveness to strangers and
fear of the servants mastered her; at Clairville she worked
incessantly, and when her nursing was done, entered upon her labours in
this Augean house with steady passionless activity.

Clairville was badly pitted and every remnant of good looks had left
him, yet on the first day that he could put his feet to the floor he
would have sent madame into the front room, saying:--

"Bring me the suit of clothes you will see hanging on a nail in the
wall".

She stared at him, knowing his weakness of body better than he knew it
himself.

"What for, m'sieu?"

"What for? What are clothes for, idiot of a woman! To put on, to
wear. I shall habit myself as a gentleman. Faith--it is time, too!"

"But, m'sieu----!"

"Bring me that suit, I say."

Madame hesitated, because she had removed the suit in question a week
before to an old trunk in an empty room--she was not very clear which
one--and it would take her some minutes to find it.

"If m'sieu will get back into his bed----"

"I will do nothing so foolish. I was thinking of getting up. I _am_
up and should be holding a levee-- How do you do, my Lord
Marquis?--pray enter. M. le Chevalier de Repentigny; open there for my
friend, the Intendant! Gentlemen, I greet you. You perceive me at my
toilet--but these lackeys are too slow! Fetch me my clothes, I say!
Ah--misery! I cannot stand! I cannot--cannot even sit! Help me to
bed, you woman there--help me, quick!"

And madame, instead of running for the suit of Court clothes, managed
to lay Henry Clairville down again before he fainted. However, the
next day he was slightly stronger and the next and the next, so that on
the fifth day he was nearly as well as ever, and again demanding the
suit, she went to the room upstairs and hunted for it. Its colour was
a faded claret, and lacings of dingy silver appeared on the front and
round the stiffened skirt that stood out from the waist--a kind of cut
to make even a meagre man look well among his fellows; a three-cornered
hat went with it, and into this relic of strenuous days,