Even in bed, her night-cap was adorned with a red bow, and was pushed rather over one ear, as was the way with all the caps that she wore, and, presently, she turned towards him and said: 

“Do you know whether your mother made a will?”

He hesitated for a moment, and then replied: 

“I ...  I do not think so....  No, I am sure that she did not.”

His wife looked at him, and she said, in a low, furious voice: 

“I call that infamous; here we have been wearing ourselves out for ten years in looking after her, and have boarded and lodged her!  Your sister would not have done so much for her, nor I either, if I had known how I was to be rewarded!  Yes, it is a disgrace to her memory!  I daresay that you will tell me that she paid us, but one cannot pay one’s children in ready money for what they do; that obligation is recognized after death; at any rate, that is how honorable people act.  So I have had all my worry and trouble for nothing!  Oh, that is nice! that is very nice!”

Poor Caravan, who felt nearly distracted, kept on saying: 

“My dear, my dear, please, please be quiet.”

She grew calmer by degrees, and, resuming her usual voice and manner, she continued: 

“We must let your sister know, to-morrow.”

He started, and said: 

“Of course, we must; I had forgotten all about it; I will send her a telegram the first thing in the morning.”

“No,” she replied, like a woman who had foreseen everything; “no, do not send it before ten or eleven o’clock, so that we may have time to turn round before she comes.  It does not take more than two hours to get here from Charenton, and we can say that you lost your head from grief.  If we let her know in the course of the day, that will be soon enough, and will give us time to look round.”

But Caravan put his hand to his forehead, and, in the same timid voice in which he always spoke of his chief, the very thought of whom made him tremble, he said: 

“I must let them know at the office.”

“Why?” she replied.  “On such occasions like this, it is always excusable to forget.  Take my advice, and don’t let him know; your chief will not be able to say anything to you, and you will put him in a nice fix.”

“Oh! yes, that I shall, and he will be in a terrible rage, too, when he notices my absence.  Yes, you are right; it is a capital idea, and when I tell him that my mother is dead, he will be obliged to hold his tongue.”

And he rubbed his hands in delight at the joke, when he thought of his chief’s face; while the body of the dead old woman lay upstairs, and the servant was asleep close to it.

But Madame Caravan grew thoughtful, as if she were pre-occupied by something, which she did not care to mention, but at last she said: 

“Your mother had given you her clock, had she not; the girl playing at cup and ball?”