Goupil
arrived in church before the Elevation. Run after her, quick!"
But Francoise returned alone, having failed to overtake Eulalie. "It is
most provoking," said my aunt, shaking her head. "The one important thing
that I had to ask her."
In this way life went by for my aunt Leonie, always the same, in the
gentle uniformity of what she called, with a pretence of deprecation but
with a deep tenderness, her 'little jog-trot.' Respected by all and
sundry, not merely in her own house, where every one of us, having learned
the futility of recommending any healthier mode of life, had become
gradually resigned to its observance, but in the village as well, where,
three streets away, a tradesman who had to hammer nails into a
packing-case would send first to Francoise to make sure that my aunt was
not 'resting'--her 'little jog-trot' was, none the less, brutally
disturbed on one occasion in this same year. Like a fruit hidden among its
leaves, which has grown and ripened unobserved by man, until it falls of
its own accord, there came upon us one night the kitchen-maid's
confinement. Her pains were unbearable, and, as there was no midwife in
Combray, Francoise had to set off before dawn to fetch one from Thiberzy.
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