almost surprised at the sight of them, as if they had acquired some new and particular meaning.  Then she shivered slightly and perceived that her hands were icy cold.  She rubbed them together gently, wishing to warm them a little.  Why was it, too, that she now felt so tired?  It seemed to her as if she had just returned from some long walk, from some accident, from some affray in which she had been bruised.  She felt within her also a tendency to somnolence, the somnolence of satiety, as if she had feasted too copiously off some spicy dish, after too great a hunger.  Amid the fatigue which benumbed her limbs she desired nothing more; apart from her sleepiness all that she felt was a kind of astonishment that things should be as they were.  However, she had again begun to listen, repeating that if that frightful silence continued, she would certainly sink upon a chair, close her eyes, and sleep.  And at last it seemed to her that she detected a faint sound, scarcely a breath, far away.

What was it?  No, there was nothing yet.  Perhaps she had dreamt that horrible scene, perhaps it had all been a nightmare; that man marching on, that black pit, that loud cry of terror!  Since she heard nothing, perhaps nothing had really happened.  Were it true a clamor would have ascended from below in a growing wave of sound, and a distracted rush up the staircase and along the passages would have brought her the news.  Then again she detected the faint distant sound, which seemed to draw a little nearer.  It was not the tramping of a crowd; it seemed to be a mere footfall, perhaps that of some pedestrian on the quay.  Yet no; it came from the works, and now it was quite distinct; it ascended steps and then sped along a passage.  And the steps became quicker, and a panting could be heard, so tragical that she at last divined that the horror was at hand.  All at once the door was violently flung open.  Morange entered.  He was alone, beside himself, with livid face and scarce able to stammer.

“He still breathes, but his head is smashed; it is all over.”

“What ails you?” she asked.  “What is the matter?”

He looked at her, agape.  He had hastened upstairs at a run to ask her for an explanation, for he had quite lost his poor head over that unaccountable catastrophe.  And the apparent ignorance and tranquillity in which he found Constance completed his dismay.

“But I left you near the trap,” said he.

“Near the trap, yes.  You went down, and I immediately came up here.”

“But before I went down,” he resumed with despairing violence, “I begged you to wait for me and keep a watch on the hole, so that nobody might fall through it.”

“Oh! dear no.  You said nothing to me, or, at all events, I heard nothing, understood nothing of that kind.”