Light - Henri Barbusse

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of her dress, and her throat is lighted up by the flaming logs. I smile weakly at her. My eyes wander over the fullness of her hips and her outspread shoulders, and fasten, in that downfallen room, on her throat, white as dawn.

      * * * * * *

      The doctor has been again. He stood some time in silence by the bed; and as he looked our hearts froze. He said it would be over to-night, and put the phial in his hand back in his pocket. Then, regretting that he could not stay, he disappeared.

      And we stayed on beside the dying woman—so fragile that we dare not touch her, nor even try to speak to her.

      Madame Piot settles down in a chair; she crosses her arms, lowers her head, and the time goes by.

      At long intervals people take shape in the darkness by the door; people who come in on tiptoe whisper to us and go away.

      The moribund moves her hands and feet and contorts her face. A gurgling comes from her throat, which we can hardly see in the cavity that is like a nest of shadow under her chin. She has blenched, and the skin that is drawn over the bones of her face like a shroud grows whiter every moment.

      Intent upon her breathing, we throng about her. We offer her our hands—so near and so far—and do not know what to do.

      I am watching Marie. She has sunk onto the little stool, and her young, full-blooming body overflows it. Holding her handkerchief in her teeth, she has come to arrange the pillow, and leaning over the bed, she puts one knee on a chair. The movement reveals her leg for a moment, curved like a beautiful Greek vase, while the skin seems to shine through the black transparency of the stocking, like clouded gold. Ah! I lean forward towards her with a stifled, incipient appeal above this bed, which is changing into a tomb. The border of the tragic dress has fallen again, but I cannot remove my eyes from that profound obscurity. I look at Marie, and look at her again; and though I knew her, it seems to me that I wholly discover her.

      "I can't hear anything now," says a woman.

      "Yes I can——"

      "No, no!" the other repeats.

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