"Ta, ta, ta; your husband pushed you, and you fell. You set it off very
nicely. He has certainly done more than push you; he must have struck you
very hard, and what is more, several times. Perhaps, also, he has trampled
you under foot. Come, answer! tell the truth."

"Ah! sir, I assure you he was drunk, otherwise he would not have been so
wicked."

"Good or wicked, drunk or sober, it has nothing to do with present matters;
I am not a magistrate, my good woman; I only wish to establish a fact. You
have been knocked down and trampled upon, have you not?"

"Alas! yes, sir," said Jeanne, bursting into tears; "and yet I have never
given him cause for complaint. I work as much as I can, and I--"

"The epigastrium must be painful? you must feel a great heat there?" said
the doctor, interrupting Jeanne; "you must experience lassitude,
uneasiness, nausea?"

"Yes, sir. I only came here at the last extremity, otherwise I would not
have abandoned my children, for whom I am so much worried; and then
Catharine--ah! it is on her account I fear the most. If you knew--"

"Your tongue!" said the doctor, again interrupting the patient.

This order appeared so strange to Jeanne, who had thought to excite
feelings of compassion in the doctor, that she did not at first comply with
it, but looked at him with amazement.