they landed, the women also arrived. The moment she saw him,
Madeleine fell back with horror. In the moonlight he already appeared
green, with his mouth, his eyes, his nose, his clothes full of slime. His
fingers closed and stiff, were hideous. A kind of black and liquid
plaster covered his whole body. The face appeared swollen, and from his
hair, glued up by the ooze, there ran a stream of dirty water.

"Do you know him?" asked one.

The other, the Croissy ferryman, hesitated:

"Yes, it certainly seems to me that I have seen that head; but you know
when like that one cannot recognize anyone easily." And then, suddenly:

"Why, it's Mr. Paul."

"Who is Mr. Paul?" inquired his comrade.

The first answered:

"Why, Mr. Paul Baron, the son of the senator, the little chap who was so
amorous."

The other added, philosophically:

"Well, his fun is ended now; it is a pity, all the same, when one is so
rich!"

Madeleine sobbed and fell to the ground. Pauline approached the body and
asked:

"Is he indeed quite dead?"

"Quite?"

The men shrugged their shoulders.

"Oh! after that length of time for certain."

Then one of them asked:

"Was it at the Grillon that he lodged?"

"Yes," answered the other; "we had better take him back there, there will
be something to be made of it."

They embarked again in their boat and set out, moving off slowly on
account of the rapid current; and yet, a long time after they were out of
sight, from the place where the women remained, the regular splash of the
oars in the water could be heard.

Then Pauline took the poor weeping Madeleine in her arms, petted her,
embraced her for a long while, consoled her.

"What would you have; it is not your fault, is it? It is impossible to
prevent men committing folly. He wished it, so much the worse for him,
after all!"

And then lifting her up:

"Come, my dear, come and sleep at the house; it is impossible for you to
go back to the Grillon to-night."

And she embraced her again.

"Come, we will cure you," said she.

Madeleine arose, and weeping all the while, but with fainter sobs, her
head upon Pauline's shoulder, as though it had found a refuge in a closer
and more certain affection, more familiar and more confiding, set off
with very slow steps.

THE RABBIT

Old Lecacheur appeared at the door of his house at his usual hour,
between five and a quarter past five in the morning, to look after
his men who were going