During forty-five days Paz watched and tended Adam without appearing
to think of Malaga, for the very good reason that he never did think of
her. Clementine, feeling that Adam was at the point of death though he
did not die, sent for all the leading doctors of Paris in
consultation.
"If he comes safely out of this," said the most distinguished of them
all, "it will only be by an effort of nature. It is for those who
nurse him to watch for the moment when they must second nature. The
count's life is in the hands of his nurses."
Thaddeus went to find Clementine and tell her this result of the
consultation. He found her sitting in the Chinese pavilion, as much
for a little rest as to leave the field to the doctors and not
embarrass them. As he walked along the winding gravelled path which
led to the pavilion, Thaddeus seemed to himself in the depths of an
abyss described by Dante. The unfortunate man had never dreamed that
the possibility might arise of becoming Clementine's husband, and now
he had drowned himself in a ditch of mud. His face was convulsed, when
he reached the kiosk, with an agony of grief; his head, like Medusa's,
conveyed despair.
"Is he dead?" said Clementine.
"They have given him up; that is, they leave him to nature. Do not go
in; they are still there, and Bianchon is changing the dressings.
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