ideous exultation upon it. I woke at last, shivering with
cold and dread, for I had fancied that he had found me, and was carrying
me away again to his old hateful haunts.

Our omnibus was jolting and rumbling down some steep and narrow streets
lighted by oil-lamps swung across them. There were no lights in any of
the houses, save a few in the upper windows, as though the inmates were
all in bed, or going to bed. Only at the inn where we stopped was there
any thing like life. A lamp, which hung over the archway leading to the
yard and stables, lit up a group of people waiting for the arrival of
the omnibus. I woke up Minima from her deep and heavy sleep.

"We are here at Noireau!" I said. "We have reached our home at last!"

The door was opened before the child was fairly awake. A small cluster
of bystanders gathered round us as we alighted, and watched our luggage
put down from the roof; while the driver ran on volubly, and with many
gesticulations, addressed to the little crowd. He, the chamber-maid, the
landlady, and all the rest, surrounded us as solemnly as if they were
assisting at a funeral. There was not a symptom of amusement, but they
all stared at us unflinchingly, as if a single wink of their eyelids
would cause them to lose some extraordinary spectacle. If I had been a
total eclipse of the sun, and they a group of enthusiastic astronomers
bent upon observing every phenomenon, they could not have gazed more
steadily. Minima was leaning against me, half asleep. A narrow vista of
tall houses lay to the right and left, lost in impenetrable darkness.
The strip of sky overhead was black with midnight.

"Noireau?" I asked, in a tone of interrogation.

"Oui, oui, madame," responded a chorus of voices.

"Carry me to the house of Monsieur Emile Perrier, the _avocat_," I said,
speaking slowly and distinctly.

The words, simple as they were, seemed to awaken considerable
excitement. The landlady threw up her hands, with an expression of
astonishment, and the driver recommenced his harangue. Was it possible
that I could have made a mistake in so short and easy a sentence? I
said it over again to myself, and felt sure I was right. With renewed
confidence I repeated it aloud, with a slight variation.

"I wish to go to the house of Monsieur Emile Perrier, the _avocat_," I
said.

But while they still clustered round Minima and me, giving no sign of
compliance with my request, two persons thrust themselves through t