La Sarriette was already eagerly trying the key in the locks of different closets.  Madame Lecoeur, all suspicion, pressed her so closely that she exclaimed:  “Really, aunt, you get in my way.  Do leave my arms free, at any rate.”

At last they succeeded in opening a wardrobe opposite the window, between the fireplace and the bed.  And then all four women broke into exclamations.  On the middle shelf lay some ten thousand francs in gold, methodically arranged in little piles.  Gavard, who had prudently deposited the bulk of his fortune in the hands of a notary, had kept this sum by him for the purposes of the coming outbreak.  He had been wont to say with great solemnity that his contribution to the revolution was quite ready.  The fact was that he had sold out certain stock, and every night took an intense delight in contemplating those ten thousand francs, gloating over them, and finding something quite roysterous and insurrectional in their appearance.  Sometimes when he was in bed he dreamed that a fight was going on in the wardrobe; he could hear guns being fired there, paving-stones being torn up and piled into barricades, and voices shouting in clamorous triumph; and he said to himself that it was his money fighting against the Government.

La Sarriette, however, had stretched out her hands with a cry of delight.

“Paws off, little one!” exclaimed Madame Lecoeur in a hoarse voice.

As she stood there in the reflection of the gold, she looked yellower than ever—­her face discoloured by biliousness, her eyes glowing feverishly from the liver complaint which was secretly undermining her.  Behind her Mademoiselle Saget on tip-toe was gazing ecstatically into the wardrobe, and Madame Leonce had now risen from her seat, and was growling sulkily.

“My uncle said I was to take everything,” declared the girl.

“And am I to have nothing, then; I who have done so much for him?” cried the doorkeeper.

Madame Lecoeur was almost choking with excitement.  She pushed the others away, and clung hold of the wardrobe, screaming:  “It all belongs to me!  I am his nearest relative.  You are a pack of thieves, you are!  I’d rather throw it all out of the window than see you have it!”

Then silence fell, and they all four stood glowering at each other.  The kerchief that La Sarriette wore over her breast was now altogether unfastened, and she displayed her bosom heaving with warm life, her moist red lips, her rosy nostrils.  Madame Lecoeur grew still more sour as she saw how lovely the girl looked in the excitement of her longing desire.

“Well,” she said in a lower tone, “we won’t fight about it.  You are his niece, and I’ll divide the money with you.  We will each take a pile in turn.”