Epilogue
APPREHENSIONS
"That's doing very well—very well indeed!" It was Bujard, the house-surgeon, who was speaking. "If everyone got on as quickly as you——"
I no longer felt any pain. My gaze wandered round the huge room. It was warm and prettily decorated—the smoking-room in the M—— hotel, which had been converted into a hospital. My temperature was normal again and I experienced a sensation of relief and deliverance. How delightful it was to rest on this pliant mattress, in these cool sheets, to distinguish the prattle of my neighbours, and the patter of the sister's feet standing out from the subdued hubbub in the ward.
When the light tired me, I closed my eyes on this scene, and went over the vicissitudes of the nightmare I had just left behind....
My long prostration in a dying condition, on that deserted plateau; swoons from which I awoke at intervals; that deadly cycle; two days and two nights. ... Ah! Faces were leaning over me. They pick me up and carry me away. Where am I? A stretcher, a motor.... Heavens, how my leg tears me! How thirsty I am!