ison on her son's account. How could that be? Anxious
beyond words, she arrived at last, with a ringing in her ears, at a
landing where there were divers little doors like those of furnished
lodgings or theatre boxes, surmounted by different inscriptions:
"Senators' Gallery," "Gallery of the Diplomatic Corps," "Members'
Gallery." She entered, seeing nothing at first but four or five rows of
benches crowded with people; then, on the opposite side of the hall, far
away, other galleries equally crowded, separated from her by a vast open
space; she leaned, still standing, against the wall, amazed to be there,
bewildered, confused. A puff of hot air striking her in the face, the
hum of voices ascending from below drew her down the sloping floor of
the gallery, toward the edge of a yawning pit, so to speak, in the
centre of the great vessel, where her son must be. Oh, how she would
have liked to see him! Thereupon, making herself as small as possible,
playing about her with her elbows, sharp and hard as her distaff, she
glided, wormed herself along between the wall and the benches, heedless
of the outbursts of wrath she aroused, of the contemptuous glances of
the women in gorgeous array, whose laces and spring dresses she crushed.
For it was a distinctly fashionable society gathering.

Indeed, Mere Jansoulet recognized by his inflexible shirtfront and
aristocratic nose the dandified marquis who had visited at Saint-Romans,
and who bore so felicitously the name of a gorgeous bird; but he did not
look at her. Having thus advanced a few rows, she was checked by the
back of a man sitting, an enormous back which completely blocked her
path, prevented her from going farther. Luckily, however, by leaning
forward a little, she could see almost the whole hall; and those
semi-circular rows of desks where the deputies stood in groups, the
green hangings on the walls, that pulpit at the rear occupied by a man
with a bald head and stern features, all in the quiet gray light falling
from above, made her think of a recitation about to commence, preceded
by the moving about and chattering of restless pupils.

One thing attracted her attention, the persistence with which all eyes
seemed to be turned in the same direction, to be fixed upon the same
point of attraction; and as she followed that current of curiosity
which magnetized the whole assemblage, the floor as well as the
galleries, she saw what everybody was staring at so earnestly; it w