Her Last Stake, Chapters I-V [pp. 815-839]

HER LAST STAKE.
of uneasy surprise drew Sister Gabrielle to linger just within
the doorway of the room she had quitted and now re-entered,
with some faint idea of catching and interpellating the landlord
at his exit. Presently they came out, talking low, and still not
observing her; and she heard M. Grosjean address the foremost gentleman, a quiet-looking, elderly Englishman, as "Monsieur le Consul." Presently, much to her surprise, she saw them
close and lock the door, and a young man, who acted as the
consul's aide or secretary, proceeded to affix seals to it in a
very business-like manner, while his superior slowly paced up
and down the corridor conversing in a low voice with the landlord. When the official seals were duly affixed they departed,
and silence again reigned throughout the place.
Sister Gabrielle went back into the room and rang the bell
once, twice, for the femme de chambre; then came outside to
avoid speaking in the invalid's room.
"Did you ring for hot water? Here it is, ma sceur!" said
the lively chambermaid, whose services had considerably improved in attentiveness since Sister Gabrielle had begun to require them on behalf of a rich Englishman instead of a lonely
and impecunious "demoiselle."
"What does that mean?" whispered the nun, pointing to
the sealed-up door.
"Ah, yes! It is dreadful, is it not?"
"I do not know;... what is it? What has happened?"
almost gasped her listener.
" Quoi, vous ne savez pas? She is dead, that lady who was
there."
"Dead?"
The girl nodded. "Some accident, I do not know what it
was rightly. Some say, indeed, that she destroyed herself.
Anyhow she was to have left to-day, and now-voila!
Are you ready for the coffee yet?"
"Yes-no-I mean yes, bring it," said Sister Gabrielle confusedly, her eyes still fixed upon the two great splotches of red
wax, stamped with the English arms, which seemed to grow
larger and larger before her eyes. And then she had to control herself and go in and attend upon her invalid, who was
very vivacious, and talked of going for a drive, and getting
disinfected, and casting aside this horrid old fever. And then,
for the first time, she found herself hailing with positive pleasure the doctor's well-known tap at the door, listened patiently
to the scraps of chat and questions of news with which the
I894.]
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