Les miserables (Abridged) - Victor Hugo [29]
Mademoiselle Baptistine was a tall, pale, thin, sweet person. She fully realised the idea which is expressed by the word “respectable;” for it seems as if it were necessary that a woman should be a mother to be venerable. She had never been pretty; her whole life, which had been but a succession of pious works, had produced upon her a kind of transparent whiteness, and in growing old she had acquired what may be called the beauty of goodness. What had been thinness in her youth had become in maturity transparency, and this etherialness permitted the angel within to shine through. She was more a spirit than a virgin mortal. Her form was shadow-like, hardly enough body to convey the thought of sex—a little earth containing a spark—large eyes, always cast down; a pretext for a soul to remain on earth.
Madame Magloire was a little, white, fat, jolly, bustling old woman, always out of breath, caused first by her activity, and then by the asthma.b
M. Myriel, upon his arrival, was installed in his episcopal palace with the honours ordained by the imperial decrees, which class the bishop next in rank to the field-marshal. The mayor and the president made him the first visit, and he, for his part, paid like honour to the general and the prefect.
The installation being completed, the town was curious to see its bishop at work.
2
M. MYRIEL BECOMES MONSEIGNEUR BIENVENU
THE BISHOP’S PALACE at D—was contiguous to the hospital: the palace was a spacious and beautiful edifice, built of stone near the beginning of the last century by Monseigneur Henri Pujet, a doctor of theology of the Faculty of Paris, abbé of Simore, who was bishop of D—in 1712. The palace was in truth a lordly dwelling: there was an air of grandeur about everything, the apartments of the bishop, the parlors, the chambers, the court of honour, which was very wide, with arched walks after the antique Florentine style; and a garden planted with magnificent trees.
The hospital was a low, narrow, one-story building with a small garden.
Three days after the bishop’s advent he visited the hospital; when the visit was ended, he invited the director to oblige him by coming to the palace.
“Monsieur,” he said to the director of the hospital, “how many patients have you?”
“Twenty-six, monseigneur.”
“That is as I counted them,” said the bishop.
“The beds,” continued the director, “are very crowded.”
“I noticed it.”
“The wards are only small rooms, and are not easily ventilated.”
“It seems so to me.”
“And then, when the sun does shine, the garden is very small for the convalescents.”
“That was what I was thinking.”
“Of epidemics we have had typhus fever this year; two years ago we had military fever, sometimes one hundred patients, and we did not know what to do.”
“That occurred to me.”
“What can we do, monseigneur?” said the director; “we must be resigned.”
This conversation took place in the dining gallery on the ground floor.
The bishop was silent a few moments: then he turned suddenly towards the director.
“Monsieur,” he said, “how many beds do you think this hall alone would contain?”
“The dining hall of monseigneur!” exclaimed the director, stupefied.
The bishop ran his eyes over the hall, seemingly taking measure and making calculations.
“It will hold at least twenty beds,” said he to himself; then raising his voice, he said:
“Listen, Monsieur Director, to what I have to say. There is evidently a mistake here. There are twenty-six of you in five or six small rooms: there are only three of us here, and space for sixty. There is a mistake, I tell you. You have my house and I have yours. Give me back my house; the palace is your home now.”
Next day the twenty-six poor invalids were installed in the bishop’s palace, and the bishop was in the hospital.
M. Myriel had no property, his family having been