Meanwhile Maurice was appearing to be interested in a conversation that was taking place between a very gentle old lady and the Abbé Lapetite, Chaplain to the Dames du Saint Sang. The old lady, severely tried of late by illness and the loss of friends, wanted to know how it was that people were unhappy in this world. "How," she asked Abbé Lapetite, "do you explain the scourges that afflict mankind? Why are there plagues, famines, floods, and earthquakes?" "It is surely necessary that God should sometimes remind us of his existence," replied Abbé Lapetite, with a heavenly smile. Maurice appeared keenly interested in this conversation. Then he seemed fascinated by Madame Fillot-Grandin, quite a personable young woman, whose simple innocence, however, detracted all piquancy from her beauty, all savour from her bodily charms. A very sour, shrill-voiced old lady, who, affecting the dowdy, woollen weeds of poverty, displayed the pride of a great lady in the world of Christian finance, exclaimed in a squeaky voice: "Well, my dear Madame d'Esparvieu, so you have had trouble here. The papers speak darkly of robbery, of thefts committed in Monsieur d'Esparvieu's valuable library, of stolen letters...." "Oh," said Madame d'Esparvieu, "if we are to believe all the newspapers say...." "Oh, so, dear Madame, you have got your treasures back. All's well that ends well." "The library is in perfect order," asserted Madame d'Esparvieu. "There is nothing missing." "The library is on the floor above this, is it not?" asked young Madame des Aubels, showing an unexpected interest in the books. Madame d'Esparvieu replied that the library occupied the whole of the second floor, and that they had put the least valuable books in the attics. "Could I not go and look at it?" The mistress of the house declared that nothing could be easier. She called to her son: "Maurice, go and do the honours of the library to Madame des Aubels." Maurice rose, and without uttering a word, mounted to the second floor in the wake of Madame des Aubels. He appeared indifferent, but inwardly he rejoiced, for he had no doubt that Gilberte had feigned her ardent desire to inspect the library simply to see him in secret. And, while affecting indifference, he promised himself to renew those offers which, this time, would not be refused. Under the romantic bust of Alexandre d'Esparvieu, they were met by the silent shadow of a little wan, hollow-eyed old man, who wore a settled expression of mute terror. "Do not let us disturb you, Monsieur Sariette," said Maurice. "I am showing Madame des Aubels round the library." Maurice and Madame des Aubels passed on into the great room where against the four walls rose presses filled with books and surmounted by bronze busts of poets, philosophers, and orators of antiquity. All was in perfect order, an order which seemed never to have been disturbed from the beginning of things.