Pianist in the Dark by Michèle Halberstadt

hands to search for possible obstacles the way she used to do. She had some difficulty with the doorknob, which Anna, at their heels, opened for them. Yet she walked from one armchair to the other without counting her steps. They sat down.
    “So, are you happy here?”
    Maria Theresia had shown him into the drawing room, at the other end of the hallway that led to the library and her piano. She was dressed very simply in gray and was wearing fingerless lace gloves. She struggled to serve the tea without shaking. Anna had set out large cups so that she wouldn’t spill anything. But her fluttering eyelids betrayed how nervous she was.
    “I miss you, naturally, but I am happy because I can see you! And now I can make out your features. I recognize you. You’re older than before, balder ... A lot of things are coming back to me, now that I can see your face.”
    She paused for an instant during which Joseph Anton, uncomfortable, pretended to blow his nose.
    She waited for him to look up again, then continued.
    “The blackness in which I lived is finally starting to dissipate, but outlines are still fuzzy and distances hard to grasp. Still, Herr Mesmer thinks that in six to eight months things should get back to normal.”
    “You’ll have to work faster. The Empress would like to commission Doctor von Stoerck to take note of your progress and organize a recital for the Court.”
    “But I need time! I spent my life blind. I have to regain certain skills before I can be expected to display them before an audience ...”
    Monsieur Paradis leaned over to his daughter.
    “You must know that some of the Faculty doctors have doubts as to Mesmer’s talents. They demand to see concrete results with their own eyes.”
    “But I’m his most recent patient. The progress I’ve made is still very fresh. They should visit the pavilion. The patients there are better qualified to explain the evolution of their conditions.”
    “They are not the Empress’s protégées.”
    Maria Theresia stood up, shaking with indignation.
    “It was your decision to send me here. It’s up to you, not me, to inform those bunglers, who were never able to do anything besides torture my body, of the breakthroughs in this treatment and the progress I’ve made!”
    She tried to move closer to her father but didn’t see the cane he had placed between his legs. She tripped over it and fell, banging her head against the corner of the table. Hearing the noise, Anna sent for Doctor Mesmer.
    When he came into the room, Maria Theresia was lying with her head on Anna’s knees, blood dripping from her right temple.
    Shaken, Monsieur Paradis rushed toward Mesmer.
    “My daughter is in no state to stay by herself!”
    Mesmer, very calm, greeted him respectfully.
    “I didn’t want to interfere in her reunion with her father.”
    He offered him a seat, then sat down himself.
    “What do you think of Maria Theresia’s progress?”
    “I find her clumsy and listless.”
    “But you must have noticed that her eyes are open, that they are not fluttering, and that she is recovering her vision.”
    “I am not a doctor. Only an official report by medical professionals will allow me to judge her state.”
    He took his hat and gloves.
    “I am aware, Herr Mesmer, of your efforts to treat my daughter. But understand that a more ... objective opinion would put me entirely at ease. “
    Mesmer concurred.
    “I am at the disposal of my colleagues.”
    Monsieur Paradis gave him his hand.
    “Very well. Many of them will agree to your invitation. I am pleased to be able to extend it to them.”
    He started walking to the door and indicated to Mesmer that he need not follow.
    “I’ll see myself out.”
    He looked in his daughter’s direction.
    “Take care of her. And tell her that my wife sends all the love a mother feels for a daughter.”
    Mesmer gestured to Anna that she see him to the door.
    His heavy footsteps made the floorboards squeak and the spaniel bark.
    He was