THE DEVIL
THE peasant was standing opposite the doctor, by the bedside of the dying old woman, and she, calmly resigned and quite
lucid, looked at them and listened to their talking. She was going to die, and she did not rebel at it, for her life was over -she was ninety-two.
The July sun streamed in at the window and through the open door and cast its hot flames on to the uneven brown clay
floor, which had been stamped down by four generations of clodhoppers. The smell of the fields came in also, driven by the
brisk wind, and parched by the noontide heat. The grasshoppers chirped themselves hoarse, filling the air with their shrill
noise, like that of the wooden crickets which are sold to children at fair time.
The doctor raised his voice and said: ``Honoré, you cannot leave your mother in this state; she may die at any moment.And the peasant, in great distress, replied: ``But I must get in my wheat, for it has been lying on the ground a long time, and
the weather is just right for it; what do you say about
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it, mother?And the dying woman, still possessed by her Norman avariciousness, replied yes with her eyes and her
forehead, and so urged her son to get in his wheat, and to leave her to die alone. But the doctor got angry, and stamping his
foot he said: ``You are no better than a brute, do you hear, and I will not allow you to do it. Do you understand? And if you
must get in your wheat to-day, go and fetch Rapet's wife and make her look after your mother. I will have it. And if you do
not obey me, I will let you die like a dog, when you are ill in your turn; do you hear me?The peasant, a tall, thin fellow with slow movements, who was tormented by indecision, by his fear of the doctor and his
keen love of saving, hesitated, calculated, and stammered out: ``How much does La Rapet charge for attending sick people?How should I know?the doctor cried. ``That depends upon how long she is wanted for. Settle it with her, by Jove! But I
want her to be here within an hour, do you hear.So the man made up his mind. ``I will go for her,he replied; ``get angry, doctor.And the latter left, calling out as
he went: ``Take care, you know, for I do not joke when I am angry!And as soon as they were alone, the peasant turned to
his mother, and said in a resigned voice: ``I will go and fetch La Rapet, as the man will have it. go off while I am
away.And he went out in his turn.
La Rapet, who was an old washerwoman, watched the dead and the dying of the neighborhood, and then,
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as soon as she had sewn her customers into that linen cloth from which they would emerge no more, she went and took up
her irons to smooth the linen of the living. Wrinkled like a last year's apple, spiteful, envious, avaricious with a phenomenal
avarice, bent double, as if she had been broken in half across the loins, by the constant movement of the iron over the linen,
one might have said that she had a kind of monstrous and cynical affection for a death struggle. She never spoke of
anything but of the people she had seen die, of the various kinds of deaths at which she had been present, and she related,
with the greatest minuteness, details which were always the same, just like a sportsman talks of his shots.
When Honoré Bontemps entered her cottage, he found her preparing the starch for the collars of the village women, and
he said: ``Good evening; I hope you are pretty well, Mother Rapet.She turned her head round to look at him and said: ``Fairly well, fairly well, and you?Oh I as for me, I am as well as I could wish, but my mother is very sick.Your mother?Yes, my mother!What's the matter with her?She is going to turn up her toes, that's what's the matter with her!The old woman took her hands out of the water and asked with sudden sympathy: ``Is she as bad as all that?The doctor says she will not last till morning.Then she certainly is very bad!Honoré hesitated, for he wanted to make a few preliminary
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remarks before coming to his proposal, but as he could hit upon nothing, he made up his mind suddenly.
``How much are you going to ask to stop with her till the end? You know that I am not rich, and I cannot even afford to
keep a servant-girl. It is just that which has brought my poor mother to this state, too much work and fatigue! She used to
work for ten, in spite of her ninety-two years. You find any made of that stuff nowadays!La Rapet answered gravely: ``There are two prices. Forty sous by day and three francs by night for the rich, and twenty
sous by day, and forty by night for the others. You shall pay me the twenty and forty.But the peasant reflected, for he knew
his mother well. He knew how tenacious of life, how vigorous and unyielding she was. He knew, too, that she might last
another week, in spite of the doctor's opinion, and so he said resolutely: ``No, I would rather you would fix a price until the
end. I will take my chance, one way or the other. The doctor says she will die very soon. If that happens, so much the better
for you, and so much the worse for me, but if she holds out till to-morrow or longer, so much the better for me and so much
the worse for you!The nurse looked at the man in astonishment, for she had never treated a death as a speculative job, and she hesitated,
tempted by the idea of the possible gain. But almost immediately she suspected that he wanted to juggle her. ``I can say
nothing until I have seen your mother,she replied.
``Then come with me and see her.Page 177
She washed her hands, and went with him immediately. They did not speak on the road; she walked with short, hasty
steps, while he strode on with his long legs, as if he were crossing a brook at every step. The cows lying down in the fields,
overcome by the heat, raised their heads heavily and lowed feebly at the two passers-by, as if to ask them for some green
grass.
When they got near the house, Honoré Bontemps murmured: ``Suppose it is all over?And the unconscious wish that it
might be so showed itself in the sound of his voice.
But the old woman was not dead. She was lying on her back, on her wretched bed, her hands covered with a pink cotton
counterpane, horribly thin, knotty paws, like some strange animal's, or like crabs' claws, hands closed by rheumatism,
fatigue, and the work of nearly a century which she had accomplished.
La Rapet went up to the bed and looked at the dying woman, felt her pulse, tapped her on the chest, listened to her
breathing, and asked her questions, so as to hear her speak: then, having looked at her for some time longer, she went out
of the room, followed by Honoré. His decided opinion was, that the old woman would not last out the night, and he asked:
``Well?And the sick-nurse replied: ``Well, she may last two days, perhaps three. You will have to give me six francs,
everything included.Six francs! six francs!he shouted. ``Are you out of your mind? I tell you that she cannot last more than five or six
hours!And they disputed angrily for some time, but as the nurse said she would
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go home, as the time was slipping away, and as his wheat would not come to the farmyard of its own accord, he agreed to
her terms at last:
``Very well, then, that is settled; six francs including everything, until the corpse is taken out.That is settled, six francs.And he went away, with long strides, to his wheat, which was lying on the ground under the hot sun which ripens the
grain, while the sick-nurse returned to the house.
She had brought some work with her, for she worked without stopping by the side of the dead and dying, sometimes for
herself, sometimes for the family, who employed her as seamstress also, paying her rather more in that capacity. Suddenly
she asked:
``Have you received the last sacrament, Mother Bontemps?The old peasant ...
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