“And Madame Volmar?” suddenly asked Madame Désagneaux. “I thought we should find her here.”
This was apparently a subject which Madame de Jonquière did not care to have discussed; for, as though she were aware of the truth and wished to bury it in silence, with the indulgence of a woman who compassionates human wretchedness, she promptly retorted: “Madame Volmar isn’t strong, she must have gone to the hotel to rest. We must let her sleep.”
Then she apportioned the beds among the ladies present, allotting two to each of them; and this done they all finished taking possession of the place, hastening up and down and backwards and forwards in order to ascertain where the offices, the linen-room, and the kitchens were situated.
“And the dispensary?” then asked one of the ladies.
But there w
