“Oh, how naughty he is!” she said.

Nevertheless she gave it some hemp-seed and corn and watched it pruning its feathers as it glanced warily at its new home and its new mistress.  On the following morning, just as day was breaking, the Patin woman distinctly heard a loud, deep, roaring voice calling:  “Are you going to get up, carrion?”

Her fear was so great that she hid her head under the sheets, for when Patin was with her as soon as he would open his eyes he would shout those well-known words into her ears.

Trembling, rolled into a ball, her back prepared for the thrashing which she already expected, her face buried in the pillows, she murmured:  “Good Lord! he is here!  Good Lord! he is here!  Good Lord! he has come back!”

Minutes passed; no noise disturbed the quiet room.  Then, trembling, she stuck her head out of the bed, sure that he was there, watching, ready to beat her.  Except for a ray of sun shining through the window, she saw nothing, and she said to her self:  “He must be hidden.”

She waited a long time and then, gaining courage, she said to herself:  “I must have dreamed it, seeing there is nobody here.”

A little reassured, she closed her eyes, when from quite near a furious voice, the thunderous voice of the drowned man, could be heard crying:  “Say! when in the name of all that’s holy are you going to get up, you b——?”

She jumped out of bed, moved by obedience, by the passive obedience of a woman accustomed to blows and who still remembers and always will remember that voice!  She said:  “Here I am, Patin; what do you want?”

Put Patin did not answer.  Then, at a complete loss, she looked around her, then in the chimney and under the bed and finally sank into a chair, wild with anxiety, convinced that Patin’s soul alone was there, near her, and that he had returned in order to torture her.

Suddenly she remembered the loft, in order to reach which one had to take a ladder.  Surely he must have hidden there in order to surprise her.  He must have been held by savages on some distant shore, unable to escape until now, and he had returned, worse that ever.  There was no doubting the quality of that voice.  She raised her head and asked:  “Are you up there, Patin?”

Patin did not answer.  Then, with a terrible fear which made her heart tremble, she climbed the ladder, opened the skylight, looked, saw nothing, entered, looked about and found nothing.  Sitting on some straw, she began to cry, but while she was weeping, overcome by a poignant and supernatural terror, she heard Patin talking in the room below.

He seemed less angry and he was saying:  “Nasty weather!  Fierce wind!  Nasty weather!  I haven’t eaten, damn it!”

She cried through the ceiling:  “Here I am, Patin; I am getting your meal ready.  Don’t get angry.”

She ran down again.  There was no one in the room.  She felt herself growing weak, as if death were touching her, and she tried to run and get help from the neighbors, when a voice near her cried out:  “I haven’t had my breakfast, by G—!”