free use of that room."

He went out; and, as soon as the door had closed behind him,

"Well?" exclaimed M. Desormeaux;

But no one had any thing to say. The guests of that house where
misfortune had just entered were making haste to leave. The
catastrophe was certainly terrible and unforeseen; but did it not
reach them too? Did they not lose among them more than three hundred
thousand francs?

Thus, after a few commonplace protestations, and some of those
promises which mean nothing, they withdrew; and, as they were going
down the stairs,

"The commissary took Vincent's escape too easy," remarked M.
Desormeaux. "He must know some way to catch him again."



VI

At last Mme. Favoral found herself alone with her children and free
to give herself up to the most frightful despair.

She dropped heavily upon a seat; and, drawing to her bosom Maxence
and Gilberte,

"O my children!" she sobbed, covering them with her kisses and her