But the next day, the young flower girl, very far from being well, had a higher fever and was slightly delirious; she hardly recognized Chicotin when he came to see her. He said to the concierge, when she approached with several jugs in her hand: "It seems to me that your patient ain't doing very well, Mere Lamort?" "Oh, yes! oh, yes!" "What's that? oh, yes? Why she hardly recognized me, and then she says things that don't mean anything." "It's the delirium going away; but I've got three kinds of herb tea for her and--ah! there's Mirontaine barking; somebody's coming." And the concierge put her head out of the round window on the sixth floor overlooking the courtyard. "Who's there? Who do you want?" she cried. An old man who had entered the house, looked up and answered in a quavering voice which only reached the fourth floor: "Have you a Monsieur Dupuis in the house?" "What? What's that? is there a well--_puits_--in the house?" "He used to be an advocate." "You say it's your trade?" "He has several children." "Are you looking for lodgings?" "Aren't you coming down?" "You say that you stuff mattresses? What a miserable voice! I wonder if the man has got a cold in his head!--Ah! there's Mirontaine barking again; I must go down.--Coming!--What a nuisance!" The concierge went downstairs, and Chicotin, after examining Violette again, shook his head and said to himself: "I don't know whether it's wise to trust to Madame Lamort's three kinds of tea; I don't know much about such things myself, but I see well enough that this poor girl has a devil of a fever. No matter what happens, I shall go down and fetch the old fellow from the floor below." Chicotin went down to Roncherolle's room, and found him all ready to go out. "Have you come again to see if you are to carry a bouquet to the baroness?" he asked with a smile; "I told you that that was all gone by; I shan't have any more bouquets to send to anybody." "No, bourgeois, no, I ain't come for that, but because of your little neighbor upstairs, Mamzelle Violette." "Well, how is she to-day?" "Not well; she's as wild as a hawk; the concierge says that that's a good sign, but I don't agree with her; I came to ask you if you would have the kindness to go to see her, because you're better able than I am to judge of her condition." "So you think that she will be willing to receive me to-day, do you?" "Pardi! yes, as she don't know whether there's anyone near her, and as just now she thought she was in the country, under the trees." "I am not a doctor, but no matter, I will go to see this girl, and if I can be of any use to her, I ask nothing better; show me the way." "Come, bourgeois, we haven't got far to go." "I can believe that."