sometimes interrupted; a knock comes, we must go down, get a stone
ready, undress the new comer and register him: that spoils the game;
we forget to mark the points.'

"'And this is the way you generally spend your evenings?'--'Always,
except when François has to go to Vaugirard at four o'clock: then
he must go to bed earlier. Perhaps you do not know that our burying
ground is at Vaugirard: as that burying ground is not much in fashion,
we have been allowed to retain our privilege of having a fosse to
ourselves.'

"'I understand,--it is a fief of the Morgue.'

"'You saw that chariot below near the entrance gate, in which the
children were hiding themselves at play,--that is our hearse.'

"'And rich or poor, all must make use of your conveyance? If for
instance a suicide is recognised, his relations or friends may reclaim
him, take him home, and bestow the rites of sepulture on him at his
own house?'

"'No, the Morgue does not give back what has been once deposited here.
It allows the funeral ceremonies to be as pompous as they will, but
they must all set out from hence; one end of the procession perhaps
is at Notre Dame, while the other is starting from the Morgue. The
Archbishop of Paris may be there; but François's place is fixed. It is
the first.'

"'And the priests of Notre Dame, do they never make any difficulty
about administering the funeral rites to your dead?'