Each in turn left her armchair to go to the poor old woman's bedside
and sit with her, giving her the false hopes with which people delude
the dying.

At the same time, when the end was drawing near, when the physician
called in the day before would no longer answer for her life, the
three dames took counsel together as to whether it would not be well
to send word to Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille. Francoise having been
duly informed, it was decided that a commissionaire should go to the
Rue Taitbout to inform the young relation whose influence was so
disquieting to the four women; still, they hoped that the Auvergnat
would be too late in bringing back the person who so certainly held
the first place in the widow Crochard's affections. The widow,
evidently in the enjoyment of a thousand crowns a year, would not have
been so fondly cherished by this feminine trio, but that neither of
them, nor Francoise herself knew of her having any heir. The wealth
enjoyed by Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille, whom Madame Crochard, in
obedience to the traditions of the older opera, never allowed herself
to speak of by the affectionate name of daughter, almost justified the
four women in their scheme of dividing among themselves the old
woman's "pickings."

Presently the one of these three sibyls who kept guard over the sick
woman came shaking her head at the other anxious two, and said:

"It is time we should be sending for the Abbe Fontanon. In another two
hours she will neither have the wit nor the strength to write a line."

Thereupon the toothless old cook went off, and returned with a man
wearing a black gown. A low forehead showed a small mind in this