Doctor Pascal

onger the same tranquil confidence in her as before, and this wounded her so deeply that, if she had at any time found the press open, she would have thrown the papers into

ings which had lasted since the day before, M

tranger whom I thought I recognized going into Mme. Felicite's house.

the moment, Pascal

your grandmother

cting him at any time for the past six months,

stioned

ago, when he stayed two hours with us on his way to Italy, he may perha

be glad of this event, which broke at last the o

s he, he will

t solicitations of old Mme. Rougon, who had still in this quarter an open f

p little Charles. Three years later she had married there a harness-maker of the faubourg, Frederic Thomas by name, a good workman and a sensible fellow, who was tempted by the allowance. For the rest her conduct was now most exemplary, she had grown fat, and she appeared to be cured of a cough that had threatened a hereditary malady due to the alcoholic propensities of a long line of progenitors. And two other children born of her marriage, a boy who was now ten and a girl wh

ng but a vicious little dog, who rubbed himself against people to be fondled. His great-grandmother Felicite, won by this beauty, in which she affected to recognize her blood, had at first put him in a boarding school, taking charge of him, but he had been expelled from it at the end of six months for misconduct. Three times she had changed his boarding school, and each time he had been expelled in disgrace. Then, as he neither would nor could learn anything, and as his health was declining rapidly, they kep

nsibilities, so that he might last as long as possible. Acute pains in the limbs, rheumatic he thought them, had been alarming him for some time past; he saw himself in fancy already an invalid tied down to an easy-chair; and his father's sudden return to France, the fresh activity which Saccard was putting forth, completed his disquietude. He knew well this devourer of millions; he trembled at finding him again bustling about him with his good-humored, malicious laugh. He felt that he was being watched, and he had the conviction that he would be cut up and devoured if he should be for a single day at his mercy, rendered helpless by the pains which were invading his limbs. And so great a fear of solitude had taken poss

the fountain under the plane trees where they had t

urprise! I have brou

t Paris and again at Plassans. Yet his image, refined, elegant, and vivacious, had remained engraven on her mind; his face had grown hollow, his hair was streaked with

he said simply, as he

e must live in the sunshine. Ah, how

ian, had examined his nephew criti

, mind you; one can be well only o

stily to the house.

is not he

terday. Uncle Macquart has taken him, and he

ositively to go away again by the nine o'clock train, without remaining over night, another idea occurred to him. He would send to the livery stable for a landau, and all four would go to see Charles at Uncle Macquart's. It would even be a delightful drive. It was not q

visibly disquieted by

in this frightful weather, you are mistaken. It is m

the whim seized him, would gallop off like an untamed animal. And old Mme. Rougon, overruled and furious at having been unable to

n! Good Heavens, how unfortun

r about two miles. After this the road entered the gorges of the Seille, a narrow pass between two giant walls of rock scorched by the ardent rays of the summer sun. Pine trees pushed their way through the clefts; clumps of trees, scarcely thicker at the roots

enthusiastic exclamations, in vain that he called his attention to the persistence of the olives, the fig trees, and the thorn bushes in pushing through the rock; the life of the rock itself, that colossal and puissant frame of the earth, from which they could almost fancy they heard a sound of breathing arise. Maxime remained cold, filled with a secret anguish in presence of those

tween two peaceful hills, with gentle slopes covered with thyme and lavender. It was the desert still, the

ted by large trees. The village was seated midway on the slope, among olive trees, and the country house of Uncle Macquart stood a little apart on t

act of treachery in the troublous days of December, 1851, an ambuscade in which he had left comrades with their bellies ripped open, lying on the bloody pavement. Later, when he had returned to France, he had preferred to the good place of which he had obtained the promise this little domain of the Tulettes, which Felicite had bought for him. And he had lived comfortably here ever since; he had no longer any other ambition than that of enlarging it, looking out once more for the good chances, and he had even found the means of obtaining a field which he had long coveted, by making h

said Pascal, as they

lberry trees, whose thick, gnarled branches drooped down, forming an arbor. It was here that Uncle Macquart smoked his pipe in the cool shade, in summer. And on hearing the sound of the carria

ed his visitors, he ca

ompany! How kind of you; y

ey mentioned his name to him, and he immediately cut short the explanations the

son of my nephew Saccard, pardi! the one wh

d him already wrinkled at thirty-two, wit

owing old. But I, at least, have no

ary brandy had seemed to him like pure water; only spirits of 36 degrees tickled his blunted palate; and he took such draughts of it that he was full of i

you so; you have good reason to ridicule us. Only there is one thing I am afraid of, look

tered, gave a

h at evil tongues. I have corn and olive trees, I have almond trees and vines and land, like any bourgeois. In summer I smoke my pipe under the shade of my mulberry trees; in winter I go to smoke it against my wall, there in the sun

sinner he had become a hermit, while Felicite, whom he had disturbed a moment before by t

ll take nothing; we are in

d, papa has come to see his boy. But that i

ed he became offended, and s

; he is at the asylu

he pointed out to him the great white buildin

, there is a fountain in a court. Follow the ground floor, and the fifth window to the rig

very gentle, she passed the days motionless in her easy-chair, looking straight before her; and as the boy liked to be with her, and as she herself seemed to take an in

elicite's ill-humor; she grew angry when Macquart propose

ne, and come back quickly

t, and perceiving how disagreeable his propositio

d hardly be polite not to go wish her a good-day, when my grandnephew, who has come from such a distance, has perhaps never before had a good look at her. I'll not disown her, may the devil take me

un through every one. And it was Clotilde, silent unt

t, uncle; we

st; it was on that account, indeed, that they were glad to leave him for weeks together in the country with his uncle: but he had no definite disease. Pascal did not add that he had for a moment cherished the dream of giving him a brain and muscles by treating him with his hypodermic injections of nerve substance, but that he had always been met by the same difficulty; the slightest puncture brought on a hemorrhage which it was found necessary to

rt, who had been listening to the doc

very gentle little fellow! And th

gloomy silence-broken from time to time by footsteps and the noise of keys. Old Macquart knew all the keepers. Besides, the doors were always to open to Dr. Pascal, who had been authorized to attend certain of the inmates. They followed a passage and entered a court; it was here-one of the chambers on the ground floor, a room covered with a light carpe

epeated. "Oh, there is no

s before, her mind had ceased to act; it had become suddenly weakened without the possibility of recovery. And now, at the age of 104 years, she lived here as if forgotten by the world, a quiet madwoman with an ossified brain, with whom insanity might remain stationary for an indefinite length of time without causing death. Old age had come, however, and had gradually atrophied her muscles. Her flesh was as if eaten away by age. The sk

ched her a litt

e you. Don't you know me, then? Your lit

mained fixed upon the boy, who was finishing cutti

You may very well look at us. Here is a gentleman, a grands

expressionless eyes wandered slowly from one to another, the

red, and no on

flood of stammering and indistinct words. She laughs and cries without cause, she is a thing that nothing affects. And yet I should not venture to say that the darkness of her mind is complete, that no memories

of her marriage, the other two illegitimate, a capricious and tumultuous existence, disappearing for weeks at a time, and returning all bruised, her arms black and blue. Then Macquart had been killed, shot down like a dog by a gendarme; and the first shock had paralyzed her, so that even then she retained nothing living but her water-clear eyes in her livid face; and she shut herself up from the world in the hut which her lover had left her, leading there for forty years th

s, who was so engrossed with his pictures

tleman is your father

ht eyes and his shower of fair curls. But what especially struck the attention at this moment was his resemblance to Aunt Dide; this resemblance which had overleaped three generations, which had passed from this withered centenarian's countenance, from these dead featur

heart-this very beauty disquieted him; his uneasiness grew in this chamber of madn

re, my pet! Don't yo

ithout comprehending, a

de wept, a flood of tears rolled from her living eyes over her dead cheeks. Her gaze

ted by neurosis. Five generations were there present-the Rougons and the Macquarts, Adelaide Fouque at the root, then the scoundrelly old uncle, then himself, then Clotilde and Maxime, and lastly, Charles. Felicite occupied the place of her dead husband. There was no link wa

er?" whispered Cl

rmured the doctor. "I

hers, to receive people with tears when they put themselves out to come and mak

last. Is it not true that he is pretty, a

satisfied with the turn which affairs were

ow skilful he is with his hands. And you will see when you have brightened him u

xime. "I do not say no;

ssed for a moment

now as I am to spend a month at St. Gervais. But as soon a

out his wat

that I would not miss the nine o'cl

Felicite brusquely. "We ha

. He told of the days when Aunt Dide talked, and he affirmed that he had found her one morning singing a romance of

that you see him, but you don't know whe

ment Charles raised his head, and Maxime, tr

ry pretty, my pet. A

e no time to lose,"

ve substance give them strength and will, repairing the breaches made in the organ? So that for a moment he had dreamed of trying the treatment with the old mother; then he began to have scruples, he felt a sort of awe, without counting that madness at that age was total, irreparable ruin. So that he had chosen another subject-a hatter named Sarteur, who had been for a year past in the asylum, to which he had come himself to beg them to shut him up to prevent him from committing a crime. In his paroxysms, s

time to see him this evening, but I will come again to-morrow. It

de. But Clotilde, whom his ent

not make life anew. Ther

ith his mocking glance as they went away. Aunt Dide, the forgotten one, sat motionless, appalling in

eepening twilight. At first a few indifferent words were exchanged; but from the moment in which they entered the gorges of the Seille all conversation ceased, as if they felt oppressed by the menacing wall

long the bank of the Viorne, when Felicite began without trans

perfectly that it is to the boy's advantage that you should take him with you. And I must tell you, too, that the poor boy i

aw a formal promise from him. She talked until they reached Plassans. Then,

s mother. That stout b

ng a stocking, taking the air, while the little girl and boy were playing on the ground at her feet. And be

d so commonplace an air, in whom there was not a trace of the wild little girl with whom he had been in love when both of the same age were ente

have recognize

disappeared; this vision of the past-a past so different from the present-h

he Viorne, a sauted rabbit, and a leg of mutton. Seven o'clo

the station; it is not ten minutes' walk from here. As you left your trunk

where she was hanging up her hat and her

t I am uneasy ab

y s

ks; and have you noticed what an anxious look he has at times? That ha

repeated tur

years she had seen driven about in a little carriage by a servant. Was not this infirmity th

d, "he complains o

a finger to his lip he went into the dining

ose charm enveloped him like a caress. So greatly was he captivated by her that gradually a project, vague at first, took definite shape within him. Since little Charles, his son, terrified him so greatly with his deathlike beauty, his royal air of sickly imbecility, why should he not take his sister Clotilde to live with him? The idea of having a woman in his house alarmed him, indeed, for he was afraid of a

ying, then?" he asked, w

ng girl

s no hurry,"

at Pascal, who had rai

l? Oh, I shall

om him, that would leave her son alone in a deserted home, where she herself might become all powerful, mistress of everything

, without taking his ey

marry. She is too se

nsible in her to marry? In order to be unhappy, p

o a resoluti

r. The idea of taking charge of a child in my state of health terrifies me. Am I not a child myself, an invalid who ne

bedside, like a Sister of Charity; if she consented to remain unmarried he would willingly leave her his fortune, so that his father migh

your part, and you should

at the table. Felicite was the first to approve, feeling that the girl's departure would further her plans. S

the young girl, unable at first

grandmoth

aid of taking Charles now, why, you can go with him, and later on you can send for the child. Come, come, that can be very

ssion. The chill that had seized him made itself f

s I said before, is very sensible and she will a

reatly agitated,

d I thank him from the bottom of my heart. But to leave everything,

indicating the place and the pe

xedly, "what if Maxime should need you, wh

less, driven, about in a little carriage by a servant, like the neighbor whom she used to pity. Had she indeed any duty toward a brother who for fifteen y

ill see. Be assured that I am very grateful to you. And if you should

had given her word. Martine brought a cream, without thinking of hiding her joy. To take away mademoiselle! what an idea, in order that monsieur might die of

pped the floor with his foot,

ll accompanied him he kissed h

mem

Felicite, "we are here to

, as soon as the train was in mo

e vanished. Never had it seemed so sweet to them to feel so united, inseparable. Doubtless it was only this first pang of uneasiness suffered by their affection, this threatened separation, the postponement of which delighted them. It was for them like a retu