The husband, while lathering his patient’s chin, said:  “That is another queer fancy!  Nobody but a woman would think of such a thing.  It is not enough for them to worry you during life, but they cannot even leave you at peace when you are dead.”  But his wife, without disconcerting herself the least, replied:  “The feeling is stronger than I, and I must go.  It has been on me since the morning.  If I was not to see her, I should think about it all my life, but when I have had a good look at her, I shall be satisfied.”

The knight of the razor shrugged his shoulders, and remarked in a low voice to the gentleman whose cheek he was scraping:  “I just ask you, what sort of ideas do you think these confounded females have?  I should not amuse myself by going to see a corpse!” But his wife had heard him, and replied very quietly:  “But it is so, it is so.”  And then, putting her knitting on the counter, she went upstairs, to the first floor, where she met two other neighbors, who had just come, and who were discussing the event with Madame Caravan, who was giving them the details, and they all went together to the mortuary chamber.  The four women went in softly, and, one after the other, sprinkled the bed clothes with the holy water, knelt down, made the sign of the cross while they mumbled a prayer, then they got up, and open-mouthed, regarded the corpse for a long time, while the daughter-in-law of the dead woman, with her handkerchief to her face, pretended to be sobbing piteously.

When she turned about to walk away, whom should she perceive standing close to the door but Marie-Louise and Philippe-Auguste, who were curiously taking stock of things.  Then, forgetting to control her chagrin, she threw herself upon them with uplifted hands, crying out in a furious voice, “Will you get out of this, you filthy brats.”

Ten minutes later, in going upstairs again with another contingent of neighbors, she prayed, wept profusely, performed all her duties, and found once more her two children, who had followed her up stairs.  She again boxed their ears soundly, but the next time she paid no heed to them, and at each fresh arrival of visitors the two urchins always followed in the wake, crowded themselves up in a corner, and imitating slavishly everything they saw their mother do.

When the afternoon came round the crowds of curious people began to diminish, and soon there were no more visitors.  Madame Caravan, returning to her own apartments, began to make the necessary preparations for the funeral ceremony, and the defunct was hence left by herself.

The window of the room was open.  A torrid heat entered along with the clouds of dust; the flames of the four candles were flickering in the direction of the immobile corpse, and upon the cloth which covered the face, the closed eyes, the two hands stretched out, small flies alighted, came, went, and careered up and down incessantly, being the only companions of the old woman during the next hour.