"Certainly, madame; one word from you to the sisters, or to the physician, would arrange all."
"This word? I will speak it, be assured."
"Since I have seen the actress who is dead, so tormented by the fear of being cut up after her death, I have had the same fear. Jeanne promised to come and claim my body, and have me buried."
"Ah! it is horrible!" said Clémence, shuddering with affright. "One must come here to know that there are, for the poor, misery and alarms even beyond the tomb."
"Pardon, madame," said La Lorraine, timidly; "for a great lady, rich and happy as you deserve to be, this request is a very sad one; I ought not to have made it!"
"I thank you, on the contrary, my child; it teaches me a misery of which I was ignorant, and this knowledge shall not be fruitless. Be comforted; although this fatal moment may be far off, when it does arrive, you may be sure to repose in holy ground."
"Oh! thank you, madame!" cried La Lorraine. "If I might dare to ask permission to kiss your hand."
Clémence presented her hand to the parched lips of La Lorraine.
"Oh! thank you, madame. I shall have some one to pray for and bless to the end, with La Goualeuse, and shall be no longer sad, for after my death—-"
This resignation, and the fears far beyond the grave, had painfully affected Lady d'Harville; she whispered to the sister who came to inform her that Miss de Fermont was completely restored, "Is the condition of this young woman really desperate?"