"Yes; but is it safe to move this young girl?"
"Certainly."
"Then, for the love of heaven, disappear with your train!"
"Come, gentlemen," said the prince of science, "we shall be deprived of a precious study; but I will make my reports on it to you." And Doctor Griffon, with his suite, continued his round, leaving M. de Saint-Remy and Madame d'Harville with Mlle. de Fermont.
During this scene, Mlle. de Fermont, still in a swoon, had been attended to by Clémence and the two nuns. Saint-Remy said in a low tone to Clémence:
"And the mother of this unhappy girl, madame?"
The marchioness replied, in a voice deeply affected:
"She has no longer a mother, sir. I learnt yesterday only, on my return, the address of Madame de Fermont, and her dying condition; at one o'clock in the morning I went to her with a medical man. Ah, sir, what a fiction! It was misery in all its horror! And no hope of saving the poor mother, whose last words were, 'My daughter!'"
"What a death! Good heaven! And she so tender, so devoted a mother,—it is frightful!"
"I will watch her until she can be moved," said Clémence, "and, when she can be removed, I will take her with me."