"Has he dared--" asked the porteress.

M. Pipelet, as mute as the statue of the commandant, like that
redoubtable spectre, bowed his head twice with an affirmative air.

"What! has M. Cabrion been here?" inquired Rigolette, repressing a
violent desire to laugh.

"What! has the monster been unchained on Alfred?" said Madame Pipelet.
"Oh, if I had been there with my broom, he should have swallowed it,
handle and all! But tell us, Alfred, all about this horrid affair."

M. Pipelet made signs with his hand that he was about to speak, and they
listened to the man with the bell-crowned hat in religious silence,
whilst he expressed himself in these terms, and in a voice of deep
emotion:

"My wife had left me, to save me the trouble of going out, according to
the request of monsieur," bowing to Rodolph, "to the mayor's, to church,
and the cook-shop."

"The dear old darling had had the nightmare all night, and I wished to
save him the journey," said Anastasie.

"This nightmare was sent me as a warning from on high," responded the
porter, religiously. "I had dreamed of Cabrion, and I was to suffer from
Cabrion. Here was I sitting quietly in front of my table, reflecting on
an alteration which I wished to make in the upper leather of this boot
confided to my hands, when I heard a noise, a rustling, at the window of
my lodge,--was it a presentiment, a warning from on high? My heart beat,
I lifted up my head, and, through the pane of glass, I saw--I saw--"

"Cabrion!" exclaimed Anastasie, clasping her hands.

"Cabrion!" replied M. Pipelet, gloomily. "His hideous face was there,
pressed close against the window, and he was looking at me with eyes
like a cat's--what do I say?--a tiger's! just as in my dream. I tried to
speak, but my tongue clave to my mouth; I tried to rise, I was nailed to
my seat. My boot fell from my hands, and, as in all the critical and
important events of my life, I remained perfectly motionless. Then the
key turned in the lock, the door opened,--Cabrion entered!"

"He entered? Owdacious monster!" replied Madame Pipelet, as much
astonished as her spouse at such audacity.

"He entered slowly," resumed Alfred, "stopped a moment at the threshold,
as if to fascinate me with his look, atrocious as it was, then he
advanced towards me, pausing at each step, and piercing me through with
his eye, but not uttering a word,--straight, mute, and threatening as a
phantom!"

"I declare, my very heart aches to h