told the shop-boy that he
could go away for a few hours; they had some family affairs to settle.
The boy departed. Madame Boyer, tired after her long morning in the
town, was resting on a sofa in the sitting-room, at the back of the
milliner's shop. Vitalis entered the room, and after a few heated words,
struck her a violent blow in the chest. She fell back on the sofa,
calling to her daughter to come to her assistance. The daughter sought
to drown her mother's cries by banging the doors, and opening and
shutting drawers. Vitalis, who was now trying to throttle his victim,
called to Marie to shut the front doors of the two shops.

To do so Marie had to pass through the sitting-room, and was a witness
to the unsuccessful efforts of Vitalis to strangle her mother. Having
closed the doors, she retired into the milliner's shop to await the
issue. After a few moments her lover called to her for the large cheese
knife; he had caught up a kitchen knife, but in his struggles it had
slipped from his grasp. Quickly Marie fetched the knife and returned to
the sitting-room. There a desperate struggle was taking place between
the man and woman. At one moment it seemed as if Madame Boyer would get
the better of Vitalis, whom nature had not endowed greatly for work of
this kind. Marie came to his aid. She kicked and beat her mother, until
at last the wretched creature released her hold and sank back exhausted.
With the cheese knife, which her daughter had fetched, Vitalis killed
Madame Boyer.

They were murderers now, the young lovers. What to do with the body? The
boy would be coming back soon. The cellar under the kitchen seemed
the obvious place of concealment. With the help of a cord the body was
lowered into the cellar, and Marie washed the floor of the sitting-room.
The boy came back. He asked where Madame Boyer was. Vitalis told him
that she was getting ready to return to Montpellier the same evening,
and that he had arranged to go with her, but that he had no intention
of doing so; he would accompany her to the station, he said, and then at
the last moment, just as the train was starting, slip away and let
her go on her journey alone. To the boy, who knew enough of the inner
history of the household to enjoy the piquancy of the situation, such a
trick seemed quite amusing. He went away picturing in his mind the scene
at the railway station and its humorous possibilities.

At seven o'clock Vitalis and Marie Boyer were alone