He was shipping her off!..
She was still holding her behind, she was squeezing it in her two hands!.. She was groaning again!..
"Good God! It’z not zat!. God damn it!”
Now she didn’t want to leave any more! Boy! some shitty mess!
The blood was dripping all over again… the floor!.. the rugs, all soaked!..
Oop! Cascade spots the inspector! Ah! all the same!.. He saw him!. What a gasp!. He starts jabbering right off..
"Oh! I beg your pardon, Inspector! Excuse me! I didn’t see you! Wouldn’t you think there’d been a crime?. What would people imagine? Oh! Inspector! Oh! Just look at that!.. Oh! I’m very upset!”
All of it, of course, jokingly. But Matthew wasn’t laughing… he was standing there planted in the doorway.. not a word out of him yet. not even "Well Well!” as usual.. Absolutely nothing. a wooden pole!
"Angele go get some towels! And the cotton!. There’s some downstairs in my drawer!”
Angele stood there dreaming. Whack!.. she’s swept away! A slap!. lifted out of her chair. she falls back!.. Badaboom!. the whole stairway!. she tumbles down three flights!. That wakes the girls right up!. they’d been watching fascinated like dopes! They wrap up the old gal in the tablecloth like a sausage.. turned over.. laced up. and the towels. the pads. all the same it’s bleeding!. Angele brings some oilcloth.. they lay the old gal on her belly. They swathe her like a baby.. It’s still a good joke..
Matthew’s frozen, he watches it alclass="underline" . a pope!..
He doesn’t move..
"The cab’s here! ” Mireille announces.
We’ve got to go down now.. Boro and me.. Cascade slips us a pack of bills, a fistful, just like that. It’s to arrange things.. The old hag’s still bawling too loud.. She demands her little remedy!.. Otherwise, she won’t go! Blackmail! Mireille dashes off again to get some!.. It’s a whim, got to give in!.. needs her remedy!.. Cascade hardly knows what to say to fix matters up… so that the guy’ll say something after all. Mr. Conscience! who’s been there an hour, who hasn’t said anything. A log!
"Believe me, if you like, Inspector! But I was insisting that someone read the cards for me! Well, I got it!.. I’ve got the question. the answer!. Look! catastrophe!”
A little joking, to loosen him up..
"Ah! Inspector, you’ve witnessed a nasty family scene!.. You walked in! as if by chance!. What do you run into?.. Lunatics? Positively!.. Lunatics! I’m very sorry, Inspector!.. Really!. Please excuse me!”
Not a word.. Wooden… He lets him talk..
"The cards! the cards! of course!.. But Angele’s a terror!
Did you see, Inspector? By yourself!.. What a character!.. I don’t have the last word in my own home!.. It’s really no life!. I’m not exaggerating a thing!.. And all these girls besides!.. All these kids they shove on to me like that!.. Bang! My arms loaded!. And me so peaceful!. quiet!.. Is that a life?… You know me, Inspector. I get pushed into complications! What kind of business is that? I ask you?” The Inspector still speechless.
"We’ll see later on! We’ll see! Who’s at fault, responsible. They say it’s Wilhelm! I wish it were!. In any case, it’s never me!. You know that, Inspector!. Everybody’s mind is topsy-turvy!.. It’s awful the way people’re going batty!.. I’m not going to look for the whys and wherefores!.. I’d go off my nut too, just hearing them!.. You too, Inspector!.. I’m convinced!. I’m sure it worries you!.. With all due respect!.. Look, Inspector, I’m not making any comparison.. Let’s get that straight!.. It’s obvious. But I’m sure that in your family, Inspector, you’ve got trouble, too!.. Ah! I’d bet!. The events affect everybody!. With all due respect!. It’s obvious! Of course!..But the circumstances affect everybody, don’t they?. everyone gets it according to his station. and the toughest situations! the worries, the ups and downs aren’t only for poor people!. Ah! that’s a fact!..
it’s a real fact! So it is! Just look at the men!. Ah! I won’t say any more. That's war, Inspector!. That’s war!. It’s a subject that makes me terribly sad! There you’ve got the sadness of Life!. And how unhappy everyone is!. And how that kind of thing ages you!. If only they noticed it. An hour’s like a year!. The things we’ve got to go through!.. Ah! it’s no exaggeration!.. You’re reasonable too, Inspector!
It’s really bad luck!. You won’t deny it!. I’m not making any comparison. Of course! It’s obvious!”
While he was jabbering away like that, occupying his attention, we fixed the old gal up, she could just about stand.. supported under the arms. with the oilcloth in her ass, the towels, ail tied up tight. outfitted for the trip!. "Forward, Madame!”. We walked in front of Matthew. he moved aside a bit.. Not a peep out of him… He was listening to Cascade clacking away..
On the stairs. more shrieks!. our chippy wasn’t feeling well! she screamed at every movement!.. We stopped and started a dozen times.. Downstairs, another session!.. We had to lift her.. get her into the cab.. people gathered around. get her among the cushions. so she’d be all set. Damn it!. there was already a crowd around. We started at a snail’s pace. we’d asked the chauffeur to drive "in low”! forward! Tottenham.. the Strand.. and the East streets.. That wasn't where the hospital was!. At the other side of Mile End!.. A real journey! Luckily it was already dark.. She’d stopped yelling except at the bumps.. The air outside did her good. she almost kept quiet. We’d propped her up pretty well. "It won’t be anything,” I said to myself. "It won’t be anything. It’s not much of a wound.”. I knew about wounds…We could have taken her to the Charing Cross nearby, the other hospital much closer! The most practical thing to do. But Cascade wouldn’t hear of it.. He’d forbidden us!.. to him Charing Cross Hospital was just a cop’s hangout. He stuck to the London.. All right, the London!. Giddy-ap, horsie!. It was some haul!. It was at least a two hours’ ride at the rate we were going!.. London’s big. It’s fifteen or twenty towns laid end to end! the same road as for the docks.. Fleet Street, the Bank, Seven Sisters.. then the Elephant, and the Port East.. Cascade trusted the London. London Hospital!. He had confidence only in the London. It was all right with me. with Joconde too! It seems it was very serious.. that you could count on the pal, the Clodo medico.. the Dr. Clodovitz in question.. that they’d known each other since their army days.. Never a slipup. the injured went through like clockwork!. nothing indiscreet… no gabbing… In the hands of Dr. Clodo.. London Hospital. They must have hit it off perfectly. Had to remember the guy. Clovis like old King Clovis and the Vase of Soissons.. Maybe it wouldn’t work out so easily.. Maybe Cascade was kidding himself a little!.. He was often optimistic. We’d see!. The streets. the little lamps!. There aren’t any before the Elephant. you start imagining things just looking at them. things dance!.. thousands.. thousands.. the way they unwind. dangling that way… in a daze. The ride reminded me of the 16th. the patrols.. the platoons. tup! tup!. tup! tup!. the rhythm. the irons. I knew something about that. the night tup! tup!.. but mustn’t forget the guy!. — Ah! Clovis. Clodo! Clodovitz!.. Clovis like the Vase of Soissons!.. Boro’d already forgotten!. Good thing I’ve got a memory..
w
" Then Clodovitz saw us coming, he made a kind of sour face. got to admit it. The nurse went to let him know that someone was asking for him very specially… He was in the back of the hospital treating an emergency case.. according to her… I rather think he’d been sleeping… He arrived drowsy, he looked bleary, he was rubbing his eyes. All the same he was pleasant, we could see he was explaining matters so that the old gal would be taken before the others. Two men put her on a stretcher. We waited outside. in the vestibule, that is. We weren’t alone. Even at ten at night it was full of families and people.. whispering together..