eyes flashed sparks, their limbs writhed like cords in the fire; they
fell, sprang up again, and caught each other like athletes in a
circus, affording their father one of those moments of happiness which
would make amends for the keenest anxieties of a busy life. Two other
persons, one on the second and one on the first floor, were also
looking into the garden, and saying that the old madman was amusing
himself by making his children fight. Immediately a number of heads
appeared at the windows; the Marquis, noticing them, called a word to
his sons, who at once climbed up to the window and jumped into his
room, and Clement obtained the permission asked by Camille.

All through the house every one was talking of the Marquis' new form
of insanity. When Popinot arrived at about twelve o'clock, accompanied
by his clerk, the portress, when asked for M. d'Espard, conducted him
to the third floor, telling him "as how M. d'Espard, no longer ago
than that very morning, had set on his two children to fight, and
laughed like the monster he was on seeing the younger biting the elder
till he bled, and as how no doubt he longed to see them kill each
other.--Don't ask me the reason why," she added; "he doesn't show
himself!"

Just as the woman spoke these decisive words, she had brought the
judge to the landing on the third floor, face to face with a door
covered with notices announcing the successive numbers of the
Picturesque History of China. The muddy floor, the dirty banisters,
the door where the printers had left their marks, the dilapidated
window, and the ceiling on which the apprentices had amused themselves
with drawing monstrosities with the smoky flare of their tallow dips,
the piles of paper and litter heaped up in the corners, intentionally
or from sheer neglect--in short, every detail of the picture lying