Then Columbel turned toward his brother-in-law: "If you wish, Cimme, I will take this wine instead of anything else; it agrees with my stomach wonderfully."
The hen, in her turn, had entered with her troop of chickens; the two women amused themselves by throwing crumbs to them. Joseph and the dog, who had eaten enough, returned to the garden.
Queen Hortense spoke continually, but the voice was lower now, so that it was no longer possible to distinguish the words.
When they had finished the coffee, they all went in to learn the condition of the sick one. She seemed calm.
They went out and seated themselves in a circle in the garden, to aid digestion.
Presently the dog began to run around the chairs with all speed, carrying something in his mouth. The child ran after him violently. Both disappeared into the house. Cimme fell asleep, with his stomach in the sun.
The dying one began to speak loud again. Then suddenly she shouted.
The two women and Columbel hastened in to see what had happened. Cimme awakened but did not move, liking better things as they were.
The dying woman was sitting up, staring with haggard eyes. Her dog, to escape the pursuit of little Joseph, had jumped upon the bed, startling her from the death agony. The dog was intrenched behind the pillow, peeping at his comrade with eyes glistening, ready to jump again at the least movement. He held in his mouth one of the slippers of his mistress, shorn of its heel in the hour he had played with it.
The child, intimidated by the woman rising so suddenly before him, remained motionless before the bed.