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Updated: June 4, 2025
Helene allowed the child to answer him, and followed them without uttering a word. As the trio passed under the porch a pitiful voice sang out: "Charity, charity! May God repay you!" Every night Jeanne dropped a ten-sou piece into Mother Fetu's hand. When the latter saw the doctor alone with Helene, she nodded her head knowingly, instead of breaking out into a storm of thanks, as was her custom.
Oh, kind Lord, grant their utmost desires to these good friends of mine in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!" As Helene listened she experienced a singular feeling of discomfort. Mother Fetu's bloated face filled her with disgust.
The doctor lingered gazing at her; but when their eyes had met, he bowed and discreetly took his leave. He had not gone down a flight ere Mother Fetu's lamentations were renewed. "Ah! he's such a clever doctor! Ah! if his medicine could do me some good! Dandelions and tallow make a good simple for removing water from the body. Yes, yes, you can say you know a clever doctor.
"Why, wait a minute; you must know him of course you must. He visits one of your lady friends!" "Ah!" exclaimed Helene, with colorless face. "Yes, to be sure; the lady who lives close by the one who used to go with you to church. She came the other day." Mother Fetu's eyes contracted, and from under the lids she took note of her benefactress's emotion.
That day Helene lingered for nearly half an hour in Mother Fetu's room, hearing her talk of Normandy, where she had been born, and where the milk was so good. During a silence she asked the old woman carelessly: "Have you known the doctor a long time?" Mother Fetu, lying on her back, half-opened her eyes and again closed them. "Oh, yes!" she answered, almost in a whisper.
Was it possible, she thought, that she could no longer find the right thing to say? Her good lady did not weep, and only gave her a twenty-sou piece. Monsieur Rambaud, meanwhile, had walked towards them from the parapet of the terrace. Helene hastened to rejoin him. At the sight of the gentleman Mother Fetu's eyes began to sparkle. He was unknown to her; he must be a new-comer.
But she had not recognized her benefactress, and with gasps and sobs began to relate how she had two children at home who were dying of hunger. Helene listened to her, struck dumb by this apparition. The children were without fire to warm them; the elder was going off in a decline. But all at once Mother Fetu's words came to an end.
In the end she awaited with evident impatience Doctor Deberle's customary visit. She questioned him as to Mother Fetu's condition; but from this they glided to other subjects, as they stood near each other, face to face. A closer acquaintance was springing up between them, and they were surprised to find they possessed similar tastes.
Mother Fetu's voice had awakened her; and perceiving that the closet door had been shut, she had made her toilet with the utmost speed in order to give her mother a surprise. "Who is it? who is it?" she again inquired, convulsed more and more with laughter. She turned to Rosalie, who entered at the moment with the breakfast. "You know; don't you speak. Nobody is asking you any question."
A week passed, and they knew one another as though they had been intimate for years. Mother Fetu's miserable abode was filled with sunshine, streaming from this fellowship of kindliness. The old woman grew better very slowly. The doctor was surprised, and charged her with coddling herself when she related that she now felt a dreadful weight in her legs.
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