CHAPTER XVIII.
From the day on which Margaret had paid that clandestine visit to the hospital, Robert had steadily improved. Whether there was some hidden efficacy in the broth she had made for him, and which was, if the truth must be told, quite inferior to that prepared under the supervision of Sister Gabrielle, or whether the light touch on his forehead of a pair of trembling lips had wrought the favorable change in his condition, must be left to the imagination of the reader, if he have one; if he have not, he will not trouble himself with either hypothesis, but will take it for granted that it was thanks to his superb constitution that Robert Feuardent's wound healed in such a short space of time.
The sisters had lavished every care on the handsome young man who had proved so agreeable and interesting a patient. They were almost more sorry for themselves than glad for him when the day on which he was to be discharged drew near. Nuns are very human when one gets to know them well, and is no longer awed
