



Produced by David Widger, Dagny, and John Bickers








DOCTOR PASCAL

By Emile Zola


Translated By Mary J. Serrano




I.

In the heat of the glowing July afternoon, the room, with blinds
carefully closed, was full of a great calm. From the three windows,
through the cracks of the old wooden shutters, came only a few scattered
sunbeams which, in the midst of the obscurity, made a soft brightness
that bathed surrounding objects in a diffused and tender light. It
was cool here in comparison with the overpowering heat that was felt
outside, under the fierce rays of the sun that blazed upon the front of
the house.

Standing before the press which faced the windows, Dr. Pascal was
looking for a paper that he had come in search of. With doors wide
open, this immense press of carved oak, adorned with strong and handsome
mountings of metal, dating from the last century, displayed within its
capacious depths an extraordinary collection of papers and manuscripts
of all sorts, piled up in confusion and filling every shelf to
overflowing. For more than thirty years the doctor had thrown into it
every page he wrote, from brief notes to the complete texts of his great
works on heredity. Thus it was that his searches here were not always
easy. He rummaged patiently among the papers, and when he at last found
the one he was looking for, he smiled.

For an instant longer he remained near the bookcase, reading the note by
a golden sunbeam that came to him from the middle window. He himself,
in this dawnlike light, appeared, with his snow-white hair and beard,
strong and vigorous; although he was near sixty, his color was so fresh,
his features were so finely cut, his eyes were still so clear, and
he had so youthful an air that one might have taken him, in his
close-fitting, maroon velvet jacket, for a young man with powdered hair.

"Here, Clotilde," he said at last, "you will copy this note. Ramond
would never be able to decipher my diabolical writing."

And he crossed the room and laid the paper beside the young girl, who
stood working at a high desk in the embrasure of the window