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Pretty-Heart, who had probably guessed that this person wearing the spectacles was a physician, again pushed out his arm. "Look," cried Vitalis, "he wants you to bleed him." That settled the doctor. "Most interesting; a very interesting case," he murmured. Alas! after examining him, the doctor told us that poor little Pretty-Heart again had inflammation of the lungs.
Without knocking, Vitalis pushed open the door at the top of the stairs, on the top floor, and we found ourselves in a large attic. There was a great empty space in the middle of the room, and all around the walls were beds, a dozen in all. The walls and ceiling that had once been white were now filthy with smoke, dust, and dirt.
This life of pastoral impropriety lasted until the middle of August, when Marie Boyer came home from Lyons. Vitalis would have concealed from the young girl as long as he could the nature of his relations with Madame Boyer, but his mistress by her own deliberate conduct made all concealment impossible.
I leaned over him and took his hand gently to wake him up. His hand was cold. Vitalis came into the room. I turned to him. "Pretty-Heart is cold," I said. My master came to my side and also leaned over the bed. "He is dead," he said. "It was to be. Ah, Remi, boy, I did wrong to take you away from Mrs. Milligan. I am punished. Zerbino, Dulcie, and now Pretty-Heart and ... this is not the end!"
"Come quite close to me," he said, "and lift Capi on your lap. He will give you some warmth from his body." Vitalis was ill. Did he know how ill? As I crept close up against him, he bent over and kissed me. That was the second time he had kissed me. Alas! it was the last. Scarcely had I cuddled up against Vitalis than I felt my eyes close. I tried to keep them open, but I could not.
When my master had finished the air from the second opera, she beckoned me to her. "I want to speak to that gentleman," she said. I was surprised, I thought she would have done better to have dropped something into the cup. Capi returned. He had collected very little more on this second round. "What does the lady want?" asked Vitalis. "To speak to you." "I have nothing to say."
I think we'd better go back." Once more we turned back. "Do you see the trees?" "Yes, there on the left." "And the ruts?" "There are not any." "Am I blind?" asked Vitalis in a low voice, as he passed his hands across his eyes; "walk straight along by the trees, and give me your hand." "Here is a wall." "No, it's a heap of stones." "No, I am sure it's a wall."
The first numbers on the program consisted of various tricks performed by the dogs. I had not the slightest notion what they did. I was so nervous and taken up in repeating my own part. All that I remember was that Vitalis put aside his fife and took his violin and played accompaniments to the dogs' maneuvers; sometimes it was dance music, sometimes sentimental airs.
There she could give full rein to her desire. To the scandal of the occasional passerby she and her lover would bathe in a stream that passed through the property, and sport together on the grass. Indoors there were always books from Vitalis' collection to stimulate their lascivious appetites.
Capi was barking loudly, furiously. But, strange! there was no sound from Zerbino or Dulcie. "What's the matter?" cried Vitalis, waking up. "I don't know." "You've been to sleep, and the fire's gone out." Capi had run to the opening, but had not ventured outside. He stood on the threshold barking. "What has happened?" I asked in my turn. In answer to Capi's barks came two or three mournful howls.
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