Page 478 - les-miserables

CHAPTER I

IN WHAT MIRROR

M. MADELEINE

CONTEMPLATES HIS HAIR

The day had begun to dawn. Fantine had passed a sleepless
and feverish night, filled with happy visions; at daybreak
she fell asleep. Sister Simplice, who had been watching with
her, availed herself of this slumber to go and prepare a new
potion of chinchona. The worthy sister had been in the lab-
oratory of the infirmary but a few moments, bending over
her drugs and phials, and scrutinizing things very close-
ly, on account of the dimness which the half-light of dawn
spreads over all objects. Suddenly she raised her head and
uttered a faint shriek. M. Madeleine stood before her; he
had just entered silently.
‘Is it you, Mr. Mayor?’ she exclaimed.
He replied in a low voice:—
‘How is that poor woman?’
‘Not so bad just now; but we have been very uneasy.’
She explained to him what had passed: that Fantine had

478 Les Miserables