t
district, where, even in fine weather, the mud remains black and sticky.
However, as Cadine walked along the footways, mechanically twisting her
bunches of violets, she was sometimes disturbed by disquieting reveries;
and Marjolin, too, suffered from an uneasiness which he could not
explain. He would occasionally leave the girl and miss some ramble or
feast in order to go and gaze at Madame Quenu through the windows of her
pork shop. She was so handsome and plump and round that it did him good
to look at her. As he stood gazing at her, he felt full and satisfied,
as though he had just eaten or drunk something extremely nice. And when
he went off, a sort of hunger and thirst to see her again suddenly came
upon him. This had been going on for a couple of months. At first he
had looked at her with the respectful glance which he bestowed upon the
shop-fronts of the grocers and provision dealers; but subsequently, when
he and Cadine had taken to general pilfering, he began to regard her
smooth cheeks much as he regarded the barrels of olives and boxes of
dried apples.

For some time past Marjolin had seen handsome Lisa every day, in the
morning. She would pass Gavard's stall, and stop for a moment or two to
chat with the poultry dealer. She now did her marketing herself, so
that she might be cheated as little as possible, she said. The truth,
however, was that she wished to make Gavard speak out. In the pork shop
he was always distrustful, but at his stall he chatted and talked with
the utmost freedom. Now, Lisa had made up her mind to ascertain from him
exactly what took place in the little room at Monsieur Lebigre's; for
she had no great confidence in her secret police office, Mademoiselle
Saget. In a short time she learnt from the incorrigible chatterbox a
lot of vague details which very much alarmed her. Two days after her
explanation with Quenu she returned home from the market looking very
pale. She beckoned to her husband to follow her into the dining-room,
and having carefully closed the door she said to him: "Is your brother
determined to send us to the scaffold, then? Why did you conceal from me
what you knew?"

Quenu declared that he knew nothing. He even swore a great oath that he
had not returned to Monsieur Lebigre's, and would never go there again.

"You will do well not to do so," replied Lisa, shrugging her shoulders,
"unless you want to get yourself into a serious scrape. Florent is up to
some evil tri