They both met Clergot, who was waiting in the street.
'You can pay him the cash; the old man won't last twenty-four hours longer,' said the doctor; and then my son came back happy and radiant, and assured me that I should soon be well again.

And strange as it may seem, a change for the better took place that very night.

Clergot had asked for forty-eight hours in which to raise the sum required.

He heard of my convalescence, and my son lost the money.
"Was it courage you lacked ?" asked the old man, turning for the first time to his son.

"Did you not know that ten drops instead of one of the medicine I was taking would have freed you from me for ever ?" Gaston did not seem at all overwhelmed.