"Are you uncomfortable in the presence of a blind man?"
"It is an undefinable emotion; my head turns. I lose my self-command."
"You didn't seem to, here."
"One does almost involuntarily the thing that costs the most, if one is determined to comfort those whose misfortunes arouse your emotions."
And they talked of other things.
[XXXIV]
Odette would no doubt have forgotten "her" blind man if a visit which Mme. de Blauve paid her had not recalled him to mind in the most unexpected manner.
Mme. de Blauve, whose calmness had always impressed every one, from the time when she was living under the bombardment of Rheims through the days in which she had made the sacrifice of her husband, her two sons, and, one may say, her daughter, now appeared unnerved. She had grown thin; her eyes were sunken; she was evidently suffering.
With her habitual resolution she opened to Odette the purpose of her visit. She had heard—it was rumored—that her dear friend, having amply and worthily overpassed the period of her widowhood, was purposing—not by inclination, but in order to accomplish a great act of charity—to become the wife of a blinded officer. People were talking about it. She herself had been extremely moved by the news, and all the more because she feared that she had incurred a certain responsibility in the matter, having probably been one of the first to urge upon the young widow the duty of a second marriage.
Odette was amazed. What were people about? Never had she had the slightest idea of such a thing. Startled at first, she went on, almost laughing, to hear what Mme. de Blauve had to say.