suffered at the thought of the injury to so frail a constitution
which must come from daily excesses like this. At length,
something which I had feared and foreseen happened. Toward the
end of supper Marguerite was seized by a more violent fit of
coughing than any she had had while I was there. It seemed as if
her chest were being torn in two. The poor girl turned crimson,
closed her eyes under the pain, and put her napkin to her lips.
It was stained with a drop of blood. She rose and ran into her
dressing-room.

"What is the matter with Marguerite?" asked Gaston.

"She has been laughing too much, and she is spitting blood. Oh,
it is nothing; it happens to her every day. She will be back in a
minute. Leave her alone. She prefers it."

I could not stay still; and, to the consternation of Prudence and
Nanine, who called to me to come back, I followed Marguerite."



Chapter 10

The room to which she had fled was lit only by a single candle.
She lay back on a great sofa, her dress undone, holding one hand
on her heart, and letting the other hang by her side. On the
table was a basin half full of water, and the water was stained
with streaks of blood.

Very pale, her mouth half open, Marguerite tried to recover