He stood still in deep thought, bending a little as he rested both his hands on the battered silver knob of his old stick.
'He is coming home!' repeated Madame Bernard in great distress.

'What are we to do ?' 'What were you going to do just now, when I met you at the door ?' asked the prelate.
'I do not know! I was going to see her! Perhaps I would have broken the news to her gently, perhaps I would have said nothing and kept the letter to give it to her at another time! How can I tell what I would have done?
It would have depended so much on the way she took the first suggestion! People have died of joy, Monseigneur! A little weakness of the heart, a sudden joyful surprise, it stops beating--that has happened before now!' 'Yes.

It has happened before now.

I knew of such a case myself.' 'And I adore the child!' cried the impulsive Frenchwoman, ready to burst into tears.

'Oh, what shall we do?
What ought we to do ?' 'Do you know the Mother Superior ?' 'Oh yes! Quite well.