"Yes--oh yes!--as quickly--as
possible--before it is too late."
But death advanced. They had waited until day, and the Abbe, having been
notified, was about to come.
Everything was now ready to receive the clergyman. The Huberts had just
finished arranging the room. Under the gay sunlight, which at this early
morning hour struck fully upon the window-panes, it looked pure as the
dawn in the nudity of its great white walls. The table had been covered
with a fresh damask cloth. At the right and the left of the crucifix two
large wax-tapers were burning in the silver candelabrum which had been
brought up from the parlour, and there were also there the consecrated
wafers, the asperges brush, an ewer of water with its basin and a
napkin, and two plates of white porcelain, one of which was filled with
long bits of cotton, and the other with little _cornets_ of paper. The
greenhouses of the lower town had been thoroughly searched, but the
only inodorous flowers that had been found were the peonies--great white
peonies, enormous tufts of which adorned the table, like a shimmering
of white lace. And in the midst of this intense whiteness, Angelique,
dying, with closed eyes, still breathed gently with a half-perceptible
breath.
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