ew open suddenly, and the child came in again, out of breath and very
pale, and said very quickly:

"Grandmamma has fallen down on the ground."

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, and 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 considerable time before he arrived. He came at
last, however, and, after having looked at the old woman, felt her pulse,
auscultated her, he said:--"It is all over."

Caravan threw himself on the body, sobbing violently; he kissed his
mother's rigid face, and wept so, that great tears fell on the dead
woman's face, like drops of water, and, naturally, Madame Caravan,
Junior, showed a decorous amount of grief, and uttered feeble moans,
as she stood behind her husband, while she rubbed her eyes vigorously.

But, suddenly, Caravan raised himself up, with his thin hair in disorder,
and, looking very ugly in his grief, said:--

"But ... are you sure, doctor?... Are you quite sure?..."

The medical stooped over the body, and, handling it with professional
dexterity, like a shopkeeper might do, when showing off his goods, he
said:--"See, my dear friend, look at her eye."

He raised the eyelid, and the old woman's looks reappeared under his
finger, and were altogether unaltered, unless, perhaps, the pupil was
rather larger, and Caravan felt a severe shock at the sight. Then
Monsieur Chenet took her thin arm, forced the fingers open, and said,
angrily, as if he had been contradicted:

"Jus