The New Book of Martyrs by Georges Duhamel;Florence Simmonds
page 11 of 170 (06%)
page 11 of 170 (06%)
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It is no use to tell him that he is on a solid table, and that he need not be afraid. He gropes about for the helpful hands, and cries, the sweat breaking out on his brow: "I know I shall fall." Then I get some one to come and hold his hands, for suffering, at any rate, is a reality.... Each sufferer has his characteristic cry when the dressing is going on. The poor have only one, a simple cry that does service for them all. It makes one think of the women who, when they are bringing a child into the world, repeat, at every pain, the one complaint they have adopted. Carre has a great many varied cries, and he does not say the same thing when the dressing is removed, and when the forceps are applied. At the supreme moment he exclaims: "Oh, the pain in my knee!" Then, when the anguish abates, he shakes his head and repeats: "Oh, that wretched knee!" When it is the turn of the thigh, he is exasperated. "Now it's this thigh again!" And he repeats this incessantly, from second to second. Then we go on to the wound under his heel, and Carre begins: |
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