Germinie Lacerteux

I

“Saved! so you are really out of danger, mademoiselle!” exclaimed the maid with a cry of joy, as she closed the door upon the doctor, and, rushing to the bed on which her mistress lay, she began, in a frenzy of happiness and with a shower of kisses to embrace, together with the bed covers, the old woman’s poor, emaciated body, which seemed, in the huge bed, as small as a child’s.

The old woman took her head, silently, in both hands, pressed it against her heart, heaved a sigh, and muttered: “Ah, well! so I must live on!”

This took place in a small room, through the window of which could be seen a small patch of sky cut by three black iron pipes, various neighboring roofs, and in the distance, between two houses that almost touched, the leafless branch of a tree, whose trunk was invisible.