Read "Doctor Pascal" by Émile Zola online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Martine one morning obtained from Dr. Pascal, as she did every three months, his receipt for fifteen hundred francs, to take it to the notary Grandguillot, to get from him what she called their "income. " The doctor seemed surprised that the payment should have fallen due again so soon; he had never been so indifferent as he was now about money matters, leaving to Martine the care of settling everything. And he and Clotilde were under the plane trees, absorbed in the joy that filled their life, lulled by the ceaseless song of the fountain, when the servant returned with a frightened face, and in a state of extraordinary agitation. She was so breathless with excitement that for a moment she could not speak.
"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! " she cried at last. "M. Grandguillot has gone away!"