he Monday morning, when Sandoz, after the
formalities and delay occasioned by the suicide, arrived in the Rue
Tourlaque for the funeral, he found only a score of people on the
footway. Despite his great grief, he had been running about for three
days, compelled to attend to everything. At first, as Christine had
been picked up half dead, he had been obliged to have her carried to the
Hopital de Lariboisiere; then he had gone from the municipal offices,
to the undertaker's and the church, paying everywhere, and full of
indifference so far as that went, since the priests were willing to pray
over that corpse with a black circle round its neck. Among the people
who were waiting he as yet only perceived some neighbours, together
with a few inquisitive folk; while other people peered out of the house
windows and whispered together, excited by the tragedy. Claude's friends
would, no doubt, soon come. He, Sandoz, had not been able to write to
any members of the family, as he did not know their addresses. However,
he retreated into the background on the arrival of two relatives, whom
three lines in the newspapers had roused from the forgetfulness in
which Claude himself, no doubt, had left them. There was an old female
cousin,* with the equivocal air of a dealer in second-hand goods, and
a male cousin, of the second degree, a wealthy man, decorated with the
Legion of Honour, and owning one of the large Paris drapery shops.
He showed himself good-naturedly condescending in his elegance, and
desirous of displaying an enlightened taste for art. The female cousin
at once went upstairs, turned round the studio, sniffed at all the bare
wretchedness, and then walked down again, with a hard mouth, as if she
were irritated at having taken the trouble to come. The second cousin,
on the contrary, drew himself up and walked first behind the hearse,
filling the part of chief mourner with proud and pleasant fitness.

* Madame Sidonie, who figures in M. Zola's novel, 'La Curee.'
The male cousin, mentioned immediately afterwards, is Octave
Mouret, the leading character of 'Pot-Bouille' and 'Au Bonheur
des Dames.'--ED.

As the procession was starting off, Bongrand came up, and, after shaking
hands with Sandoz, remained beside him. He was gloomy, and, glancing at
the fifteen or twenty strangers who followed, he murmured:

'Ah! poor chap! What! are there only we two?'

Dubuche was at Cannes with his children. Jory and Fagerolles