This chamber, though perfectly clean, was cold and bare.A greenish paper covered the walls, and a low, little iron bedstead, the head of which formed a kind of shelf, stood in one corner; a stove, fixed in the chimney-place, was surrounded by an iron grating, which forbade a near approach; a table fastened to the wall, a chair placed before this table, and also clamped to the floor, a mahogany chest of drawers, and a rush-
bottomed armchair completed the scanty furniture.The curtainless window was furnished on the inside with an iron grating, which served to protect the panes from being broken.
It was into this gloomy retreat, which formed so painful a contrast with the charming little summer-house in the Rue de Babylone, that Adrienne was carried by Tomboy, who, with the assistance of Gervaise, placed the inanimate form on the bed.The lamp was deposited on the shelf at the head of the couch.Whilst one of the nurses held her up, the other unfastened and took off the cloth dress of the young girl, whose head drooped languidly on her bosom.Though in a swoon, large tears trickled slowly from her closed eyes, whose long black lashes threw their shadows on the transparent whiteness of her cheeks.Over her neck and breast of ivory flowed the golden waves of her magnificent hair, which had come down at the time of her fall.When, as they unlaced her satin corset, less soft, less fresh, less white than the virgin form beneath, which lay like a statue of alabaster in its covering of lace and lawn, one of the horrible hags felt the arms and shoulders of the young girl with her large, red, horny, and chapped hands.Though she did not completely recover the use of her senses, she started involuntarily from the rude and brutal touch.
"Hasn't she little feet?" said the nurse, who, kneeling down, was employed in drawing off Adrienne's stockings."I could hold them both in the hollow of my hand." In fact, a small, rosy foot, smooth as a child's, here and there veined with azure, was soon exposed to view, as was also a leg with pink knee and ankle, of as pure and exquisite a form as that of Diana Huntress.