They undid his cravat, and took off his shirt collar, for he was
suffocating. With the help of the old soldier, whose red, tearful
eyes, told of suppressed grief, they moved the count's chair to the
half-opened window to give him a little air. Three days before, this
scene would have killed him. But the heart hardens by misfortune, like
hands by labour.
"His tears have saved him," whispered the doctor to Claire.
M. de Commarin gradually recovered, and, as his thoughts became clearer,
his sufferings returned.
Prostration follows great mental shocks. Nature seems to collect her
strength to sustain the misfortune. We do not feel all its intensity at
once; it is only afterwards that we realize the extent and profundity of
the evil.
The count's gaze was fixed upon the bed where lay Valerie's body. There,
then, was all that remained of her. The soul, that soul so devoted and
so tender, had flown.
What would he not have given if God would have restored that unfortunate
woman to life for a day, or even for an hour? With what transports
of repentance he would have cast himself at her feet, to implore her
pardon, to tell her how much he detested his past conduct! How had
he acknowledged the inexhaustible love of that angel? Upon a mere
suspicion, without deigning to inquire, without giving her a hearing,
he had treated her with the coldest contempt.
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