ONE FOOT IN THE TOMB Cournet was waiting for us.

He received us on the ground floor, in a parlor where there was a fire, a table, and some chairs; but the room was so small that a quarter of us filled it to overflowing, and the others remained in the courtyard.

"It is impossible to deliberate here," said Bancel.

"I have a larger room on the first floor," answered Cournet, "but it is a building in course of construction, which is not yet furnished, and where there is no fire."-- "What does it matter ?" they answered him.

"Let us go up to the first floor." We went up to the first floor by a steep and narrow wooden staircase, and we took possession of two rooms with very low ceilings, but of which one was sufficiently large.