as soon as eight o’clock struck, she only had eyes for the frosted “cabinet” window on which appeared the black shadows of the coterie of politicians.  She discovered the secession of Charvet and Clemence by missing their bony silhouettes from the milky transparency.  Not an incident occurred in that room but she sooner or later learnt it by some sudden motion of those silent arms and heads.  She acquired great skill in interpretation, and could divine the meaning of protruding noses, spreading fingers, gaping mouths, and shrugging shoulders; and in this way she followed the progress of the conspiracy step by step, in such wise that she could have told day by day how matters stood.  One evening the terrible outcome of it all was revealed to her.  She saw the shadow of Gavard’s revolver, a huge silhouette with pointed muzzle showing very blackly against the glimmering window.  It kept appearing and disappearing so rapidly that it seemed as though the room was full of revolvers.  Those were the firearms of which Mademoiselle Saget had spoken to Madame Quenu.  On another evening she was much puzzled by the sight of endless lengths of some material or other, and came to the conclusion that the men must be manufacturing cartridges.  The next morning, however, she made her appearance in the wine shop by eleven o’clock, on the pretext of asking Rose if she could let her have a candle, and, glancing furtively into the little sanctum, she espied a heap of red material lying on the table.  This greatly alarmed her, and her next budget of news was one of decisive gravity.

“I don’t want to alarm you, Madame Quenu,” she said, “but matters are really looking very serious.  Upon my word, I’m quite alarmed.  You must on no account repeat what I am going to confide to you.  They would murder me if they knew I had told you.”

Then, when Lisa had sworn to say nothing that might compromise her, she told her about the red material.

“I can’t think what it can be.  There was a great heap of it.  It looked just like rags soaked in blood.  Logre, the hunchback, you know, put one of the pieces over his shoulder.  He looked like a headsman.  You may be sure this is some fresh trickery or other.”

Lisa made no reply, but seemed deep in thought whilst with lowered eyes, she handled a fork and mechanically arranged some piece of salt pork on a dish.

“If I were you,” resumed Mademoiselle Saget softly, “I shouldn’t be easy in mind; I should want to know the meaning of it all.  Why shouldn’t you go upstairs and examine your brother-in-law’s bedroom?”

At this Lisa gave a slight start, let the fork drop, and glanced uneasily at the old maid, believing that she had discovered her intentions.  But the other continued:  “You would certainly be justified in doing so.  There’s no knowing into what danger your brother-in-law may lead you, if you don’t put a check on him.  They were talking about you yesterday at Madame Taboureau’s.  Ah! you have a most devoted friend in her.  Madame Taboureau said that you were much too easy-going, and that if she were you she would have put an end to all this long ago.”