The Awakening and Selected Short Stories - Page 134/161

It was nothing; only a slight feeling of faintness, that would soon

pass. She entreated them to take no notice; but they brought her some

water and fanned her with a palmetto leaf.

But that night, in the stillness of the room, Mam'selle Pauline sobbed

and would not be comforted. Ma'ame Pelagie took her in her arms.

"Pauline, my little sister Pauline," she entreated, "I never have seen

you like this before. Do you no longer love me? Have we not been happy

together, you and I?"

"Oh, yes, Sesoeur."

"Is it because La Petite is going away?"

"Yes, Sesoeur."

"Then she is dearer to you than I!" spoke Ma'ame Pelagie with sharp

resentment. "Than I, who held you and warmed you in my arms the day you

were born; than I, your mother, father, sister, everything that could

cherish you. Pauline, don't tell me that."

Mam'selle Pauline tried to talk through her sobs.

"I can't explain it to you, Sesoeur. I don't understand it myself. I

love you as I have always loved you; next to God. But if La Petite goes

away I shall die. I can't understand,--help me, Sesoeur. She seems--she

seems like a saviour; like one who had come and taken me by the hand and

was leading me somewhere-somewhere I want to go."

Ma'ame Pelagie had been sitting beside the bed in her peignoir and

slippers. She held the hand of her sister who lay there, and smoothed

down the woman's soft brown hair. She said not a word, and the silence

was broken only by Mam'selle Pauline's continued sobs. Once Ma'ame

Pelagie arose to mix a drink of orange-flower water, which she gave to

her sister, as she would have offered it to a nervous, fretful child.

Almost an hour passed before Ma'ame Pelagie spoke again. Then she

said:--

"Pauline, you must cease that sobbing, now, and sleep. You will make

yourself ill. La Petite will not go away. Do you hear me? Do you

understand? She will stay, I promise you."

Mam'selle Pauline could not clearly comprehend, but she had great faith

in the word of her sister, and soothed by the promise and the touch of

Ma'ame Pelagie's strong, gentle hand, she fell asleep.