Roncherolle followed the young messenger, who ushered him into Violette's room. The attic chamber was not elegant, but it was neat and clean; the furniture was decent and in good condition; in short, nothing in the room indicated poverty, or made the heart ache; on the contrary, there were two large bouquets in two pretty vases. Roncherolle approached the spotless white bed on which the sick girl lay; she seemed to be in a very agitated sleep. He took one hand which was moist and burning, he felt her pulse, then shook his head, saying: "The fever is very high, but the skin is not dry; I am glad of that, it is less dangerous." "You don't like dry skins?" "I say that I don't think that this fever is dangerous. But what do I see on the mantel?" "Those are flowers, some of Mamzelle Violette's stock." "Such enormous bunches of flowers in a sick room! why, there's enough there to kill her, and I'm not surprised that she is out of her head; take them all away at once, throw the flowers out of the window." "You see, Mamzelle Violette adores flowers, and Mere Lamort, instead of leaving them in a corner of the courtyard, by the pump, where Violette always keeps them, she said yesterday: 'I'll just take two big bunches, and she'll enjoy looking at them as long as she is lying in her bed.'" "Mere Lamort seems to me too well named; if that's the way that she takes care of sick people, I must congratulate her.--Take all these flowers away, my boy, and give the girl nothing to drink except a very weak infusion of linden, with a few orange leaves: I am no doctor, but I have an idea that that will be enough, and that she will be better to-morrow. But take all these flowers away, don't leave a single one here!" While Chicotin hastily removed all the flowers from the vases, Roncherolle gazed at the sleeping girl and murmured: "It would be a pity; she is very pretty, is this child. Where the devil have I seen that face?--Come, my boy, we'll let her sleep; I am going down to give Mere Lamort a talking to." XXXVIII THE NEIGHBOR'S VISIT The next morning Chicotin appeared in Monsieur de Roncherolle's apartment with a radiant face, exclaiming: "I've come to tell you, monsieur, that you fixed Mamzelle Violette up in fine shape; she ain't out of her head to-day, her fever is much less; in fact, she feels a great deal better; she told me to come and thank you and tell you that she'd come herself as soon as she gets up." "Thank me! for what? Because I advised giving her linden tea to drink, and because I had the flowers taken out of her room? why, anybody would have said as much as that. Don't let the girl put herself out for such a trifle. However, as she is better, I will go up soon to see her, to bid her good-morning. I fancy that that is not forbidden now?" "Oh, no! you're a friend of hers now, bourgeois." "Very good; in that case, announce a visit from her friend of the fifth floor."