ld be a
capital way to ruin us."

He hesitated. He wanted to appear calm, and anxiety gave a tremor to his
voice.

"It will be best to let matters take their course," he continued. "These
people are as silly as geese. The mute despair of the old woman will
certainly teach them nothing. They will never have the least suspicion
of the thing, for they are too far away from the truth. Once the ordeal
is over, we shall be at ease as to the consequences of our imprudence.
All will be well, you will see."

When the guests arrived in the evening, Madame Raquin occupied her usual
place, between the stove and table. Therese and Laurent feigned to be
in good spirits, concealing their shudders and awaiting, in anguish, the
incident that was bound to occur. They had brought the lamp-shade very
low down, so that the oilcloth table covering alone was lit up.

The guests engaged in the usual noisy, common-place conversation that
invariably preceded the first game of dominoes. Grivet and Michaud did
not fail to address the usual questions to the paralysed woman, on the
subject of her health, and to give excellent answers to them, as was
their custom. After which, the company, without troubling any further
about the poor old lady, plunged with delight into the game.

Since Madame Raquin had become aware of the horrible secret, she had
been awaiting this evening with feverish impatience. She had gathered
together all her remaining strength to denounce the culprits. Up to the
last moment, she feared she would not be present at the gathering; she
thought Laurent would make her disappear, perhaps kill her, or at least
shut her up in her own apartment. When she saw that her niece and nephew
allowed her to remain in the dining-room, she experienced lively joy at
the thought of attempting to avenge her son.

Aware that her tongue was powerless, she resorted to a new kind of
language. With astonishing power of will, she succeeded, in a measure,
in galvanising her right hand, in slightly raising it from her knee,
where it always lay stretched out, inert; she then made it creep little
by little up one of the legs of the table before her, and thus succeeded
in placing it on the oilcloth table cover. Then, she feebly agitated the
fingers as if to attract attention.

When the players perceived this lifeless hand, white and nerveless,
before them, they were exceedingly surprised. Grivet stopped short,
with his arm in the air, at the moment whe