"Never mind, Alfred!" said Anastasie, who always exhibited great determination upon all critical occasions. "Bless you! The villain had managed to hide himself somewhere near the door, and, while we were looking in one direction, he managed to slip out in another. But just wait a bit: I shall catch him one of these days, and then see if I don't make him taste my broomstick! Let him take care, that's all!" The door opened as she concluded this animating address, and Madame Seraphin, the housekeeper of the notary, Jacques Ferrand, entered the lodge. "Good day, Madame Seraphin," said Madame Pipelet, who, in her extreme anxiety to conceal her domestic troubles from a stranger, assumed all at once a most gracious and winning manner; "what can I have the pleasure of doing for you?" "Why, first of all, tell me what is the meaning of your new sign?" "Our new sign?" "Yes; the small printed board." "Printed board!" "To be sure; that black board with red letters, hung over the door leading from the alley up to your lodge." "What, out in the street?" "In the street, I tell you, precisely over your door." "I wish I may die if I understand a single word of what you are talking about! Do you, old dear?" Alfred spoke not. "Certainly," continued Madame Seraphin, "since it relates to M. Pipelet, he can best explain to me what this board means." Alfred uttered a sort of heavy, inarticulate groan, while his bell-crowned hat recommenced its convulsive agitations. This pantomimic action was meant to express that Alfred was in no condition to explain anything to anybody, having his mind already sufficiently burdened with an infinity of problematical questions he sought in vain to solve. "Don't take any notice of poor dear Alfred, Madame Seraphin; he has got the cramp in his stomach, and that makes him so very--But what is this board of which you were speaking? Very likely it has just been put up by the man who keeps the wine-shop at the corner." "I tell you again it is no such thing. It is a small painted board, hung up over your door,--I mean the door leading from the alley to the street." "Ah, you are laughing at us!" "Indeed I am not. I saw it just now, as I came in; on it is written, in large letters, 'Pipelet and Cabrion, dealers in Friendship and similar Articles. Inquire of the Porter.'" "Gracious goodness! Do you hear that, Alfred? Do you hear what is written up over our door?" Alfred gazed at Madame Seraphin with a bewildered look, but he neither understood nor sought to understand her meaning. "Do you mean to say," continued Madame Pipelet, confounded by this fresh audacity, "that you positively saw a little board out in the street with all that about Alfred and Cabrion, and dealing in friendship?"