"If they were dogs," cried Miss Clairville, in fretful fear and mortification, "they would not sleep like that! They would know you were ill, dying, and they would keep watch and show affection. I always hated cats, and now I shall hate them more than ever."
"What are cats?" said the doctor with a yawn, which vanished as he glanced down at his patient. "Come, you are here to arrange a few details with monsieur your brother—make haste then. Madame, some water and a little brandy in it! So. Now, Mademoiselle, attend."
"There is not so much for me to say," said the sick man, pressing Pauline's hand with wistful entreaty, "as there is from me to hear from you yourself. I have confessed my fault, my sin, and yet, not my sin, Pauline. Angele is my child, by Artémise Archambault, as you have always known, but she is more, she is my daughter, legitimately begotten, in proper wedlock. This you did not know, my poor Pauline. She is a true Clairville, my sister, a De Clairville, I should say."
Pauline was now entirely overcome with a new emotion, that of intense surprise and consternation; instantly the consequences of legitimizing "Angeel" rushed at her. Instead of a low liaison there was marriage; the child and she were heirs alike; they were relations and should be friends, and what she had feared to hear timidly broached—some plan to keep the child near her—would now be insisted upon.
"Oh!" she cried, drawing away, "this is worse than anything I came prepared to hear! This is the worst, cruellest of all. Far better had she been nameless, far, far better. Perhaps—ah! yes—now I understand; he is ill, he wanders, he does not know what he is saying."
"Tell her, Renaud."
"It is all true, mademoiselle. Believe what he says, for he was never clearer in the head, not often so clear in life and health as now."
At this she broke down completely, sobbing aloud. The priest gently intervened.
"I cannot allow this, my daughter. You must respect the hour, the condition of monsieur, the place, the death-bed of a Christian, mademoiselle!"
Pauline's sudden sharp sobs were all that could be heard. She had never wept like this in her life before.