[Gutenberg 54483] • The Rapin

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV. ENVOY. Meanwhile, Gamier, left alone in the atelier, sat musing on the strangeness of things, and waiting for To'to's return. Ten minutes passed by, and half an hour. Through the top-light, which was pulled a bit open, he could hear the sparrows bickering on the roof, and the voice of a hawker in the Rue de Perpignan crying " Strawberries!" whilst a broad dash of sunlight, falling upon the lower part of the wall opposite to him, lit the place with an effulgence of its own, like a great lamp radiating sunbeams. It seemed such a pity that Celestin should be ill this glorious weather. Presently he heard her voice calling for Desire in a muffled manner. "He will be back very soon, my little Celestin," said Garnier, as he stood beside the bed, smiling down upon the patient. "Mon Dieu! my poor, child, how blue your lips have become, even within so short a time. Say to me, Celestin, how you feel." "I feel choking," murmured Celestin, with a terrible look of appeal, as though she had but that moment recognized the extent of her illness with the fact that Toto had gone out. Gamier made a little dramatic back-step, which he corrected by folding his hands loosely in front of him and rubbing them slightly one upon the other as if nothing was the matter. The frightful truth suddenly broke upon him that Celestin, his little Celestin, was terribly ill. "I feel choking--it is terrible--my friend." "Oh, yes," said Garnier, dropping beside her on his knees. "What is it? You frighten me. Have you pain? Speak, Celestin, and tell me." "Oh, no pain, but I cannot breathe. Stay, I am better now--the weight has gone a bit; but it will come back. I am afraid to die; what will he do? I would have worked for him; but it is no use--I cannot if I am dead. And he was in tro...