"Yes, for a dull beast like him he had a certain air of--"

"Stop!" said Massin, alarmed at a sudden thought. "His wife is there;
they've got some plan! Do you do both errands; I'll go back."

Just as the post master fell into the chair he saw at the gate the
heated face of the clerk of the court who returned to the house of death
with the celerity of a weasel.

"Well, what is it now?" asked the post master, unlocking the gate for
his co-heir.

"Nothing; I have come back to be present at the sealing," answered
Massin, giving him a savage look.

"I wish those seals were already on, so that we could go home," said
Minoret.

"We shall have to put a watcher over them," said Massin. "La Bougival
is capable of anything in the interests of that minx. We'll put Goupil
there."

"Goupil!" said the post master; "put a rat in the meal!"

"Well, let's consider," returned Massin. "To-night they'll watch the
body; the seals can be affixed in an hour; our wives could look after
them. To-morrow we'll have the funeral at twelve o'clock. But the
inventory can't be made under a week."

"Let's get rid of that girl at once," said the colossus; "then we can
safely leave the watchman of the town-hall to look after the house and
the seals."

"Good," cried Massin. "You are the head of the Minoret family."

"Ladies," said Minoret, "be good enough to stay in the salon; we can't
think of our dinner to-day; the seals must be put on at once for the
security of all interests."

He took his wife apart and told her Massin's proposition about Ursula.
The women, whose hearts were full of vengeance against the minx, as they
called her, hailed the idea of turning her out. Bongrand arrived with
his assistants to apply the seals, and was indignant when the request
was made to him, by Zelie and Madame Massin, as a near friend of the
deceased, to tell Ursula to leave the house.

"Go and turn her out of her father's house, her benefactor's house
yourselves," he cried. "Go! you who owe your inheritance to the
generosity of her soul; take her by the shoulders and fling her into
the street before the eyes of the whole town! You think her capable of
robbing you? Well, appoint a watcher of the seals; you have a right to
do that. But I tell you at once I shall put no seals on Ursula's room;
she has a right to that room, and everything in it is her own property.
I shall tell her what her rights are, and tell her too to put everything
that belongs to