noon
The _ chick 's _ sister-in-law alone was left to her . But hers was a life that hung trembling in the balance , ready to fly away . Crushed by the death of a child for whom she had waited for years , the poor woman was dying of consumption . Mademoiselle de Varandeuil was in her bedroom every day , from noon until six o'clock , for four years . She lived by her side all that time , in the close atmosphere and the odor of constant fumigations . She did not allow herself to be kept away for one hour by her own gout and rheumatism , but gave her time and her life to the peaceful last hours of that dying woman , whose eyes were fixed upon heaven , where her dead children awaited her . And when , in the cemetery , Mademoiselle de Varandeuil had turned aside the shroud to kiss the dead face for the last time , it seemed to her as if there were no one near to her , as if she were all alone upon the earth .