"I can answer for its immediate effects; but not for the consequences that may follow."
"What is to be done? Mon Dieu! what is to be done?" cried Catherine, in accents of anguish.
"Do not hesitate, madame," I said; "since all hope is gone, accept the only chance that remains!"
"I am of the same opinion, do not hesitate, madame," said Frank, who shared our emotion.
"Proceed, monsieur," whispered Madame de Fersen, in an accent of desperate determination; and she knelt down by her child's cot.
Her lips moved in prayer.
She, Frank, and I fixed upon the doctor sorrowing and apprehensive looks.
He alone was calm, as with slow and silent steps he approached Irene's bedside.
At the sight of his tall figure, his austere countenance, his long white hair, his peculiar garb, one might have supposed him a man gifted with some occult power, ready to perform by a potion some mysterious charm.
He poured into a golden spoon a few drops of the liquid contained in the vial.