"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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