He who draws out our wit is never a fool; and when
one is contented with himself, he is discontented with no
one else. The most intelligent men labored for the rep-
utation of Madame Chermidy, sometimes by furnishing
her with ideas, and sometimes by saying with a secret



THE WEDDING. 67

complaisance,— '^^ She is a superior woman; she under-
stands me."

In the course of the aûemoon, she laid hands on a
renowned homœopathist, who had chai^ of the health
of the most illustrious families of Paris, and found means
to question him in the presence of seven or eight persons
on the point which preoccupied her.
"Doctor,'' said she, "you who know every thing, teU
me whether consumptive people are ever cured?"

The homoeopathist replied gallantly, that she would
never have any quarrel with such a malady.
"I am not in question," returned she. "But I am
interested with all my heart in a poor child whose lungs
are in a sad state."

** Send me to her, madame. There is no cure impossi-
ble to homœopathy."

" You are very kind. But her physician, a simple allo-
pathist, assures me that she has but one lung; even that
is attacked."

"We can cure it."

" The hing, may-be. But the patient ? "

" The patient can live with a single lung ; that has been
seen. I do not promise you that she will ever be able to
climb Mont Blanc on a run, but she may live very com-
fortably for several years by means of care and globules*"



68 GERMAINE.
