And just because
I am so poor, you would do me a great pleasure if you would accept
my two pears." [Footnote: The boy's own words.--See Beauchesne, vol.
ii., p. 180.]
He had raised his eyes to the doctor with a gentle, supplicatory
expression, and taking the pears from the pocket of his worn, mended
jacket, he gave them to the physician.
Then happened something which, had Simon entered the room just then,
would probably have filled him with exasperation. It happened that
the proud and celebrated Dr. Naudin, the director and first
physician of the Hotel Dieu, sank on his knee before this poor boy
in the patched jacket, who had nothing to give but two pears, and
that he was so overcome, either by inward pain or by reverence, that
while taking the pears he could only whisper, with a faint voice: "I
thank your majesty. I have never received a nobler or more precious
gift than this fruit, which my unfortunate king gives me, and I
swear to you that I will be your devoted and faithful servant."
It happened further that Dr. Naudin pressed to his lips the hand
that reached him the precious gift, and that upon this hand two
tears fell from the eyes of the physician, long accustomed to look
upon human misery and pain, and which had not for years been
suffused with moisture.
Just then, approaching steps being heard in the corridor, the doctor
rose quickly, concealed the pears in his pocket, and entered the
chamber of the sick woman at the same instant when Simon returned
from his visit above-stairs.
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