e cross, passed along the Grand'Rue, all the heirs
joined the procession, to get an entrance to the house and see that
nothing was abstracted, and lay their eager hands upon its coveted
treasures at the earliest moment.

When the doctor saw, behind the clergy, the row of kneeling heirs, who
instead of praying were looking at him with eyes that were brighter than
the tapers, he could not restrain a smile. The abbe turned round, saw
them, and continued to say the prayers slowly. The post master was the
first to abandon the kneeling posture; his wife followed him. Massin,
fearing that Zelie and her husband might lay hands on some ornament,
joined them in the salon, where all the heirs were presently assembled
one by one.

"He is too honest a man to steal extreme unction," said Cremiere; "we
may be sure of his death now."

"Yes, we shall each get about twenty thousand francs a year," replied
Madame Massin.

"I have an idea," said Zelie, "that for the last three years he hasn't
invested anything--he grew fond of hoarding."

"Perhaps the money is in the cellar," whispered Massin to Cremiere.

"I hope we shall be able to find it," said Minoret-Levrault.

"But after what he said at the ball we can't have any doubt," cried
Madame Massin.

"In any case," began Cremiere, "how shall we manage? Shall we divide;
shall we go to law; or could we draw lots? We are adults, you know--"

A discussion, which soon became angry, now arose as to the method
of procedure. At the end of half an hour a perfect uproar of voices,
Zelie's screeching organ detaching itself from the rest, resounded in
the courtyard and even in the street.

The noise reached the doctor's ears; he heard the words, "The house--the
house is worth thirty thousand francs. I'll take it at that," said, or
rather bellowed by Cremiere.

"Well, we'll take what it's worth," said Zelie, sharply.

"Monsieur l'abbe," said the old man to the priest, who remained beside
his friend after administering the communion, "help me to die in peace.
My heirs, like those of Cardinal Ximenes, are capable of pillaging the
house before my death, and I have no monkey to revive me. Go and tell
them I will have none of them in my house."

The priest and the doctor of the town went downstairs and repeated the
message of the dying man, adding, in their indignation, strong words of
their own.

"Madame Bougival," said the doctor, "close the iron gate and allow
no one to enter; even the d