"Yes," the mother answered. "What o'clock is it?" "Close on six. It has struck the half-hour at St. Médard." "Hang it!" said Jondrette, "the girls must go on the watch. Come here and listen to me." There was a whispering, and then Jondrette's voice was again uplifted. "Has Mame Bougon gone?" "Yes," the mother answered. "Are you sure there is nobody in the neighbor's room?" "He has not come in all day, and you know that this is his dinner hour." "Are you sure?" "Quite." "No matter," Jondrette added; "there is no harm in going to see whether he is in. Daughter, take the candle and go." Marius fell on his hands and knees and silently crawled under the bed; he had scarce done so ere he saw light through the cracks of his door. "Papa," a voice exclaimed, "he is out." He recognized the elder girl's voice. "Have you been in his room?" the lather asked. "No," the girl replied; "but as his key is in his door he has gone out" The father shouted,-- "Go in, all the same." The door opened, and Marius saw the girl come in, candle in hand. She was the same as in the morning, save that she was even more fearful in this light. She walked straight up to the bed, and Marius suffered a moment of intense anxiety; but there was a looking-glass hanging from a nail by the bedside, and it was to that she proceeded. She stood on tip-toe and looked at herself; a noise of iron being moved could be heard in the other room. She smoothed her hair with her hand, and smiled in the glass while singing, in her cracked and sepulchral voice,-- "Nos amours out duré toute une semaine, Mais que du bonheur les instants sont courts, S'adorer huit jours c'était bien la peine! Le temps des amours devrait durer toujours! Devrait durer toujours! devrait durer toujours." Still Marius trembled, for he thought that she could not help hearing his breathing. She walked to the window and looked out, while saying aloud with the half-crazy look she had,-- "How ugly Paris is when it has put on a white sheet!" She returned to the glass, and began taking a fresh look at herself, first full face and then three-quarters. "Well," asked the father, "what are you doing there?" "I am looking under the bed and the furniture," she said, as she continued to smooth her hair; "but there is nobody." "You she-devil!" the father yelled. "Come here directly, and lose no time." "Coming, coming," she said; "there's no time to do anything here." Then she hummed,-- "Vous me quittez pour aller à la gloire, Mon triste cœur suivra partout vos pas." She took a parting glance at the glass and went off, closing the door after her. A moment later Marius heard the sound of the girls' naked feet pattering along the passage, and Jondrette's voice shouting to them,--