I muttered something, and did so. In the room in which I had waited, the half-shuttered room of gloom and shadows, from which Louis had fetched me, we found the surgeon groping hastily about. "Some paper, Monsieur," he said, looking up impatiently as we entered. "Some paper! Almost anything should do." "Stay!" Louis said, his voice harsh with pain. "We have had too much of this--this mockery. I will have no more." "Monsieur?" "I say I will have no more!" Louis answered fiercely, a sob in his throat. "Tell her the truth." "She would not believe it." "At any rate, anything is better than this." "Do you mean it, Monsieur?" the surgeon asked slowly, and he looked at him. "I do." "Then I will have no part in it," the man answered with gravity. "I acquit myself of all responsibility. Nor shall you do it, Monsieur, until you have heard what the inevitable result will be." "My mother cannot recover," Louis said stubbornly. "No, Monsieur, nor will she live, in my opinion, more than a few hours. When the fever that now supports her begins to wane she will collapse, and die. It depends on you whether she closes her eyes, knowing none of the evil that has happened, or her son's death; or dies----" "It is horrible!" "It is for you to choose," the surgeon answered inexorably. Louis looked round. "There is paper there," he said suddenly. I suppose that we had been absent from the room no more than a couple of minutes, but when we returned we found Madame St. Alais calling impatiently for us and for Victor. "Where is he? Where is he?" she repeated feverishly. "Why is he late to-day of all days? There is no--no quarrel between you?" And she looked jealously at me. "None, Madame," I said, with tears in my voice. "That I swear!" "Then why is he not here? And M. de Gontaut?" Her eyes were still bright; the red spot burned still in her cheeks; but her features had taken a pinched look, she was changed, and her fingers were never still. Her voice had grown harsh and unnatural, and from time to time she looked round with a piteous expression as if something puzzled her. "I am not well to-day," she muttered presently, with a painful effort to be herself. "And I forget to be as gay as I should be. Mademoiselle, go to M. le Vicomte, and say something pretty to amuse us while we wait. And you, M. le Vicomte! In my young days it was usual for the _fiancé_ to salute his mistress on these occasions. Fie on you! For shame, Monsieur! I am afraid that you are a laggard in love."