ave it to the old woman. She pretended not to hear, as she always
does when one tells her unpleasant truths, but she is no more deaf than
I am, as you know. It is all a sham, and the proof of it is, that she
went up to her own room immediately, without saying a word."

Caravan, embarrassed, did not utter a word, and at that moment the
little servant came in to announce dinner. In order to let his mother
know, he took a broom-handle, which always stood in a corner, and
rapped loudly on the ceiling three times, and then they went into the
dining-room. Madame Caravan, junior, helped the soup, and waited for the
old woman, but she did not come, and as the soup was getting cold,
they began to eat slowly, and when their plates were empty, they waited
again, and Madame Caravan, who was furious, attacked her husband:

"She does it on purpose, you know that as well as I do. But you always
uphold her."

Not knowing which side to take, he sent Marie-Louise to fetch her
grandmother, and he sat motionless, with his eyes cast down, while his
wife tapped her glass angrily with her knife. In about a minute, the
door flew open suddenly, and the child came in again, out of breath and
very pale, and said hurriedly:

"Grandmamma has fallen on the floor."

Caravan jumped up, threw his table-napkin down, and rushed upstairs,
while his wife, who thought it was some trick of her mother-in-law's,
followed more slowly, shrugging her shoulders, as if to express her
doubt. When they got upstairs, however, they found the old woman lying
at full length in the middle of the room; and when they turned her over,
they saw that she was insensible and motionless, while her skin looked
more wrinkled and yellow than usual, her eyes were closed, her teeth
clenched, and her thin body was stiff.

Caravan knelt down by her, and began to moan.

"My poor mother! my poor mother!" he said. But the other Madame Caravan
said:

"Bah! She has only fainted again, that is all, and she has done it to
prevent us from dining comfortably, you may be sure of that."

They put her on the bed, undressed her completely, and Caravan, his
wife, and the servant began to rub her; but, in spite of their efforts,
she did not recover consciousness, so they sent Rosalie, the servant, to
fetch Doctor Chenet. He lived a long way off, on the quay, going towards
Suresnes, and so it was a considerable time before he arrived. He came
at last, however, and, after having looked at the