"Don't you trouble, Sister," she said, "I will cut her bread
into little bits for her."
Marie, with the need she felt of diverting her mind from her own
sufferings, had already begun to take an interest in that motionless
sufferer whose countenance was so thickly veiled, for she not unnaturally
suspected that it was a case of some distressing facial sore. She had
merely been told that the patient was a servant, which was true, but it
happened that the poor creature, a native of Picardy, named Elise
Rouquet, had been obliged to leave her situation, and seek a home with a
sister who ill-treated her, for no hospital would take her in. Extremely
devout, she had for many months been possessed by an ardent desire to go
to Lourdes.
While Marie, with dread in her heart, waited for the fichu to be moved
aside, Madame de Jonquiere, having cut some bread into small pieces,
inquired maternally: "Are they small enough? Can you put them into your
mouth?"
Thereupon a hoarse voice growled confused words under the black fichu:
"Yes, yes, madame." And at last the veil fell and Marie shuddered with
horror.
It was a case of lupus which had preyed upon the unhappy woman's nose and
mouth. Ulceration had spread, and was hourly spreading--in short, all the
hideous peculiarities of this terrible disease were in full process of
development, almost obliterating the traces of what once were pleasing
womanly lineaments.
"Oh, look, Pierre!" Marie murmured, trembling.
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