Cimme fell asleep, his well-rounded paunch bathed in the glow of the shining sun.

The dying woman once more began to talk in a loud voice.  Then suddenly she shrieked.

The two women and Colombel rushed in to see what was the matter.  Cimme, waking up, did not budge, because, he did not wish to witness such a scene.

She was sitting up, with haggard eyes.  Her dog, in order to escape being pursued by little Joseph, had jumped up on the bed, run over the sick woman, and entrenched behind the pillow, was looking down at his playmate with snapping eyes, ready to jump down and begin the game again.  He was holding in his mouth one of his mistress’ slippers, which he had torn to pieces and with which he had been playing for the last hour.

The child, frightened by this woman who had suddenly risen in front of him, stood motionless before the bed.

The hen had also come in, and frightened by the noise, had jumped up on a chair and was wildly calling her chicks, who were chirping distractedly around the four legs of the chair.

Queen Hortense was shrieking: 

“No, no, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to!  I don’t want to!  Who will bring up my children?  Who will take care of them?  Who will love them?  No, I don’t want to!—­I don’t——­”

She fell back.  All was over.

The dog, wild with excitement, jumped about the room, barking.

Colombel ran to the window, calling his brother-in-law: 

“Hurry up, hurry up!  I think that she has just gone.”

Then Cimme, resigned, arose and entered the room, mumbling

“It didn’t take as long as I thought it would!”

TIMBUCTOO

The boulevard, that river of humanity, was alive with people in the golden light of the setting sun.  The whole sky was red, blinding, and behind the Madeleine an immense bank of flaming clouds cast a shower of light the whole length of the boulevard, vibrant as the heat from a brazier.

The gay, animated crowd went by in this golden mist and seemed to be glorified.  Their faces were gilded, their black hats and clothes took on purple tints, the patent leather of their shoes cast bright reflections on the asphalt of the sidewalk.

Before the cafes a mass of men were drinking opalescent liquids that looked like precious stones dissolved in the glasses.

In the midst of the drinkers two officers in full uniform dazzled all eyes with their glittering gold lace.  They chatted, happy without asking why, in this glory of life, in this radiant light of sunset, and they looked at the crowd, the leisurely men and the hurrying women who left a bewildering odor of perfume as they passed by.

All at once an enormous negro, dressed in black, with a paunch beneath his jean waistcoat, which was covered with charms, his face shining as if it had been polished, passed before them with a triumphant air.  He laughed at the passers-by, at the news venders, at the dazzling sky, at the whole of Paris.  He was so tall that he overtopped everyone else, and when he passed all the loungers turned round to look at his back.