2012年3月30日星期五

Then, raising his voice:--


"So it seems to me."
  "And then, when there is a ray of sun, the garden is very small for the convalescents."
  "That was what I said to myself."
  "In case of epidemics,--we have had the typhus fever this year; we had the sweating sickness two years ago, and a hundred patients at times,--we know not what to do."
  "That is the thought which occurred to me."
  "What would you have, Monseigneur?" said the director.
  "One must resign one's self."
  This conversation took place in the gallery dining-room on the ground-floor.
  The Bishop remained silent for a moment; then he turned abruptly to the director of the hospital.
  "Monsieur," said he, "how many beds do you think this hall alone would hold?"
  "Monseigneur's dining-room?" exclaimed the stupefied director.
  The Bishop cast a glance round the apartment, and seemed to be taking measures and calculations with his eyes.
  "It would hold full twenty beds," said he, as though speaking to himself.
  Then, raising his voice:--
  "Hold, Monsieur the director of the hospital, I will tell you something. There is evidently a mistake here.
  There are thirty-six of you, in five or six small rooms.
  There are three of us here, and we have room for sixty.
  There is some mistake, I tell you; you have my house, and I have yours.
  Give me back my house; you are at home here."
  On the following day the thirty-six patients were installed in the Bishop's palace, and the Bishop was settled in the hospital.
  M. Myriel had no property, his family having been ruined by the Revolution.
  His sister was in receipt of a yearly income of five hundred francs, which sufficed for her personal wants at the vicarage.
  M. Myriel received from the State, in his quality of bishop, a salary of fifteen thousand francs.
  On the very day when he took up his abode in the hospital, M. Myriel settled on the disposition of this sum once for all, in the following manner. We transcribe here a note made by his own hand:--
   NOTE ON THE REGULATION OF MY HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES.

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