I have no longer need of anything."
"What gloomy thoughts! At your age--so young--there is always some
remedy."
"Oh! no, madame, I know my fate: I do not complain. I saw a person die last
night--here--with the same disease; it is an easy death I thank you for
your goodness."
"You may magnify your danger."
"I am not mistaken, madame, I know it well. But since you are so kind--a
great lady like you is all-powerful--"
"Speak--say, what do you wish?"
"I have asked a service of Jeanne; but, since, thanks to the good God and
you, she is going away--"
"Ah! well, this service--can I not render it?"
"Certainly, madame; one word from you to the sisters, or to the physician,
would arrange all."
"This word? I will speak it, be assured."
"Since I have seen the actress who is dead, so tormented by the fear of
being cut up after her death, I have had the same fear. Jeanne promised to
come and claim my body, and have me buried."
"Ah! it is horrible!" said Clemence, shuddering with affright. "One must
come here to know that there are, for the poor, misery and alarms even
beyond the tomb."
"Pardon, madame," said La Lorraine, timidly; "for a great lady, rich and
happy as you deserve to be, this request is a very sad one; I ought not to
have made it!"
"I thank you, on the contrary, my child; it teaches me a misery of which I
was ignorant, and this knowledge shall not be fruitless.
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