Emile Zola

A Love Episode Emile Zola

Book Excerpt: ...er. He kept his gaze fixed on the sufferer, and put some brief questions to Helene as she stood by the bedside."How old is the child?""Eleven years and six months, sir," was the reply. Silence again fell between them. He shook his head, and stooped to raise one of Jeanne's lowered eyelids and examine the mucus. Then he resumed his questions, but without raising his eyes to Helene."Did she have convulsions when she was a baby?""Yes, sir; but they left her after she reached her sixth birthday. Ah! she is very delicate. For some days past she had seemed ill at ease. She was at times taken with cramp, and plunged in a stupor.""Do you know of any members of your family that have suffered from nervous affections?""I don't know. My mother was carried off by consumption."Here shame made her pause. She could not confess that she had a grandmother who was an inmate of a lunatic asylum.[*] There was something tragic connected with all her ancestry.[*...