Read "The Three Cities, Lourdes Volume II" by Émile Zola online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THE doctor was waiting for the young priest outside the Verification Office, in front of which a compact and feverish crowd of pilgrims was assembled, waylaying and questioning the patients who went in, and acclaiming them as they came out whenever the news spread of any miracle, such as the restoration of some blind man's sight, some deaf woman's hearing, or some paralytic's power of motion.
Pierre had no little difficulty in making his way through the throng, but at last he reached his friend. "Well," he asked, "are we going to have a miracle -- a real, incontestable one I mean?"