e candle, she saw
that he was trembling.

"You silly fellow!" she exclaimed, "to get yourself into such a state
just because a door won't open! Why, you're no better than a girl, in
spite of your big fists!"

She stepped inside the storeroom. Gavard had rented two compartments,
which he had thrown into one by removing the partition between them. In
the dirt on the floor wallowed the larger birds--the geese, turkeys,
and ducks--while up above, on tiers of shelves, were boxes with barred
fronts containing fowls and rabbits. The grating of the storeroom was so
coated with dust and cobwebs that it looked as though covered with grey
blinds. The woodwork down below was rotting, and covered with filth.
Lisa, however, not wishing to vex Marjolin, refrained from any further
expression of disgust. She pushed her fingers between the bars of the
boxes, and began to lament the fate of the unhappy fowls, which were
so closely huddled together and could not even stand upright. Then she
stroked a duck with a broken leg which was squatting in a corner, and
the young man told her that it would be killed that very evening, for
fear lest it should die during the night.

"But what do they do for food?" asked Lisa.

Thereupon he explained to her that poultry would not eat in the dark,
and that it was necessary to light a candle and wait there till they had
finished their meal.

"It amuses me to watch them," he continued; "I often stay here with a
light for hours altogether. You should see how they peck away; and when
I hide the flame of the candle with my hand they all stand stock-still
with their necks in the air, just as though the sun had set. It is
against the rules to leave a lighted candle here and go away. One of the
dealers, old Mother Palette--you know her, don't you?--nearly burned the
whole place down the other day. A fowl must have knocked the candle over
into the straw while she was away."

"A pretty thing, isn't it," said Lisa, "for fowls to insist upon having
the chandeliers lighted up every time they take a meal?"

This idea made her laugh. Then she came out of the storeroom, wiping her
feet, and holding up her skirts to keep them from the filth. Marjolin
blew out the candle and locked the door. Lisa felt rather nervous at
finding herself in the dark again with this big young fellow, and so she
hastened on in front.

"I'm glad I came, all the same," she presently said, as he joined her.
"There is a great deal more u