Sister Simplice — Les Misérables

The incidents about to be told were not all known in the town. The small portion that became known left such a memory that a serious gap would exist if they were not narrated in their most minute details. Among them the reader will encounter two or three improbable circumstances, preserved out of respect for the truth. On the afternoon following Javert's visit, Madeleine goes to see Fantine as usual. Before entering he has Sister Simplice summoned. The two nuns who nurse in the infirmary are Sister Perpétue and Sister Simplice. Perpétue is an ordinary villager, a sister of charity in a coarse style, who entered the service of God as one enters any other service. She is a nun as other women are cooks. Robust, ruddy, she sugars the potion according to the bigotry of the invalid, is crabbed with the dying, almost flings God in their faces. Simplice is white, with a waxen pallor. Beside Perpétue she is the taper beside the candle.

Vincent de Paul traced the Sister of Charity: their convent only the house of the sick; for veil only modesty. This ideal is realized in Simplice. She has never been young; it seems she will never grow old. Gentle, austere, well-bred, cold, she has never lied. She is so gentle she appears fragile; she is more solid than granite. There is silence in her speech. Never to have said, for any interest whatever, any single thing which was not the sacred truth, is her distinctive trait. Little lie, innocent lie: does such a thing exist? To lie is the absolute form of evil. He who lies, lies the whole lie. Satan has two names; he is called Satan and Lying. On entering the order she took the name of Simplice by special choice. Simplice of Sicily preferred to allow both her breasts to be torn off rather than say she had been born at Segesta when she had been born at Syracuse, a lie which would have saved her. This patron saint suited this soul. She had had two faults, gradually corrected: a taste for dainties, and a liking for letters. She never reads anything but a book of prayers in Latin, in coarse type. She does not understand Latin; she understands the book.

This pious woman has conceived an affection for Fantine, probably feeling a latent virtue there, and has devoted herself almost exclusively to her care. Madeleine takes her apart and recommends Fantine in a singular tone, which the sister recalls later on. Then he approaches the bed. Fantine awaits him every day as one awaits a ray of warmth. She says to the sisters, I only live when the mayor is here. She has a great deal of fever. As soon as she sees him: And Cosette? He replies with a smile, Soon. He is the same as usual. Only he remains an hour instead of half an hour. It is noticed that there is a moment when his countenance becomes very sombre. This is explained when it becomes known that the doctor has bent down to his ear: She is losing ground fast. Then he returns to the town-hall, and the clerk observes him attentively examining a road map of France which hangs in his study. He writes a few figures on a bit of paper with a pencil.