A moment later, recalled by a cry from La Bougival, she ran back.

The old man looked at her eagerly.

Seeing her hands empty, he rose in his bed, tried to speak, and died with a horrible gasp, his eyes haggard with fear.

The poor girl, who saw death for the first time, fell on her knees and burst into tears.

La Bougival closed the old man's eyes and straightened him on the bed; then she ran to call Savinien; but the heirs, who stood at the corner of the street, like crows watching till a horse is buried before they scratch at the ground and turn it over with beak and claw, flocked in with the celerity of birds of prey..