My aunt was unable to 'rest,' owing to the cries of the girl, and as
Francoise, though the distance was nothing, was very late in returning,
her services were greatly missed. And so, in the course of the morning,
my mother said to me: "Run upstairs, and see if your aunt wants anything."
I went into the first of her two rooms, and through the open door of the
other saw my aunt lying on her side, asleep. I could hear her breathing,
in what was almost distinguishable as a snore. I was just going to slip
away when something, probably the sound of my entry, interrupted her
sleep, and made it 'change speed,' as they say of motorcars nowadays, for
the music of her snore broke off for a second and began again on a lower
note; then she awoke, and half turned her face, which I could see for the
first time; a kind of horror was imprinted on it; plainly she had just
escaped from some terrifying dream. She could not see me from where she
was lying, and I stood there not knowing whether I ought to go forward or
to retire; but all at once she seemed to return to a sense of reality, and
to grasp the falsehood of the visions that had terrified her; a smile of
joy, a pious act of thanksgiving to God, Who is pleased to grant that life
shall be less cruel than our dreams, feebly illumined her face, and, with
the habit she had formed of speaking to herself, half-aloud, when she
thought herself alone, she murmured: "The Lord be praised! We have nothing
to disturb us here but the kitchen-maid's baby.
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