At times, a fiercer pang than the former ones
forced a cry of anguish from her. She did not recognise Noel.
"You see, sir," said the servant.
"Yes. Who would have supposed her malady could advance so rapidly?
Quick, run to Dr. Herve's, tell him to get up, and to come at once, tell
him it is for me." And he seated himself in an arm-chair, facing the
suffering woman.
Dr. Herve was one of Noel's friends, an old school-fellow, and the
companion of his student days. The doctor's history differed in
nothing from that of most young men, who, without fortune, friends,
or influence, enter upon the practice of the most difficult, the most
hazardous of professions that exist in Paris, where one sees so many
talented young doctors forced, to earn their bread, to place themselves
at the disposition of infamous drug vendors. A man of remarkable courage
and self-reliance, Herve, his studies over, said to himself, "No, I will
not go and bury myself in the country, I will remain in Paris, I will
there become celebrated. I shall be surgeon-in-chief of an hospital, and
a knight of the Legion of Honour."
To enter upon this path of thorns, leading to a magnificent triumphal
arch, the future academician ran himself twenty thousand francs in debt
to furnish a small apartment.
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