plague had been in Paris.

"'It is true,' said M. Perrin, 'we worked hard during the three days,
and we were allowed the use of two assistants. Corpses every where,
within, without, at the gate, on the bank.'--

"'And your girls?'

"'During these days they did not leave their apartment, nor looked
out to the street, nor to the river; besides, you are mistaken if you
think the spectacle would have terrified them. Brought up here,
they will walk at night without a light in front of the glass, which
divides the corpses from the public, without trembling; we become
accustomed to any thing.'

"Methought I heard the poor children, so familiar with the idea of
death, so accustomed to this domestic spectacle of their existence,
asking innocently of the strangers whom they visited,--as one would
ask where is your garden, your kitchen, or your cabinet,--'where do
_you_ keep your dead here?'

"These were all the facts I could gather with regard to the
establishment. I was opening the glass door to breathe the fresh air
again, when the entrance of the crowd drove me back into the interior;
they were following a bier, on which lay a body, from which the water
dripped in a long stream. From one of the hands which were closely
clenched, the keeper detached a strip of coloured linen, and a
fragment of lace. 'Ah!' said he, 'let me look, 'tis she!'

"'Who is it?'