a scream, which
she attempted to stifle with a sudden fit of coughing; and this so
diverted the others that for a moment after the Amen they remained
writhing with merriment, their noses close to the stone flags.

La Teuse dismissed them; while the priest, after crossing himself,
remained absorbed before the altar, no longer hearing what went on
behind him.

'Come, now, clear out,' muttered the old woman. 'You're a pack of
good-for-nothings, who can't even respect God. It's shameful, it's
unheard of, for girls to roll about on the floor in church like beasts
in a meadow---- What are you doing there, La Rousse? If I see you
pinching any one, you'll have to deal with me! Oh, yes, you may put out
your tongue at me; I'll tell his reverence about it. Out you get; out
you get, you minxes!'

She drove them slowly towards the door, while running and bobbling round
them frantically. And she had succeeded, as she thought, in getting
every one of them outside, when she caught sight of Catherine and
Vincent calmly installed in the confessional, where they were eating
something with an air of great enjoyment. She drove them away; and as
she popped her head outside the church, before closing the door, she
espied Rosalie throwing her arm over the shoulder of Fortune, who had
been waiting for her. The pair of them vanished in the darkness amid a
faint sound of kisses.

'To think that such creatures dare to come to our Lady's altar!' La
Teuse stuttered as she shot the bolts. 'The others are no better, I am
sure. If they came to-night with their boughs, it was only for a bit of
fun and to get kissed by the lads on going off! Not one of them will
put herself out of the way to-morrow; his reverence will have to say
his _Aves_ by himself---- We shall only see the jades who have got
assignations.'

Thus soliloquising, she thrust the chairs back into their places, and
looked round to see if anything suspicious was lying about before
going off to bed. In the confessional she picked up a handful of
apple-parings, which she threw behind the high altar. And she also found
a bit of ribbon torn from some cap, and a lock of black hair, which she
made up into a small parcel, with the view of opening an inquiry into
the matter. With these exceptions the church seemed to her tidy. There
was oil enough for the night in the bracket-lamp of the sanctuary,
and as to the flags of the choir, they could do without washing till
Saturday.

'It's nearly