The nuns carried Madame Aubain from the
room.
For two nights, Felicite never left the corpse. She would repeat the
same prayers, sprinkle holy water over the sheets, get up, come back
to the bed and contemplate the body. At the end of the first vigil, she
noticed that the face had taken on a yellow tinge, the lips grew blue,
the nose grew pinched, the eyes were sunken. She kissed them several
times and would not have been greatly astonished had Virginia opened
them; to souls like this the supernatural is always quite simple. She
washed her, wrapped her in a shroud, put her into the casket, laid a
wreath of flowers on her head and arranged her curls. They were blond
and of an extraordinary length for her age. Felicite cut off a big lock
and put half of it into her bosom, resolving never to part with it.
The body was taken to Pont-l'Eveque, according to Madame Aubain's
wishes; she followed the hearse in a closed carriage.
After the ceremony it took three quarters of an hour to reach the
cemetery.
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