But on this particular afternoon there had apparently been none.
The cures which had so far passed before them were doubtful ones,
deficient in interest. Meanwhile, out-of-doors, you could hear the
stamping and roaring of the crowd, goaded into a frenzy by repeated
hymns, enfevered by its earnest desire for the Divine interposition, and
growing more and more enervated by the delay.
All at once, however, a smiling, modest-looking young girl, whose clear
eyes sparkled with intelligence, entered the office. "Ah!" exclaimed
Doctor Bonamy joyously, "here is our little friend Sophie. A remarkable
cure, gentlemen, which took place at the same season last year, and the
results of which I will ask permission to show you."
Pierre had immediately recognized Sophie Couteau, the /miraculee/ who had
got into the train at Poitiers. And he now witnessed a repetition of the
scene which had already been enacted in his presence. Doctor Bonamy began
giving detailed explanations to the little fair-haired gentleman, who
displayed great attention. The case, said the doctor, had been one of
caries of the bones of the left heel, with a commencement of necrosis
necessitating excision; and yet the frightful, suppurating sore had been
healed in a minute at the first immersion in the piscina.
"Tell the gentlemen how it happened, Sophie," he added.
The little girl made her usual pretty gesture as a sign to everybody to
be attentive. And then she began: "Well, it was like this; my foot was
past cure, I couldn't even go to church any more, and it had to be kept
bandaged because there was always a lot of matter coming from it.
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