But, all of a sudden, he said: "So then, they are dead?" "They are dead." "The father, the mother, and the brother?" "The three in one month, and I told you. I was left by myself with nothing but my clothes, for I was in debt to the apothecary and the doctor and for the funeral of the three, and had to pay what I owed with the furniture." "After that I went as a servant to the house of Mait'e Cacheux--you know him well--the cripple. I was just fifteen at the time, for you went away when I was not quite fourteen. I tripped with him. One is so senseless when one is young. Then I went as a nursery-maid to the notary who debauched me also, and brought me to Havre, where he took a room for me. After a little while, he gave up coming to see me. For three days I lived without eating a morsel of food; and then, not being able to get employment, I went to a house, like many others. I, too, have seen different places--ah! and dirty places! Rouen, Evreux, Lille, Bordeaux, Perpignan, Nice, and then Marseilles, where I am now!" The tears started from her eyes, flowed over her nose, wet her cheeks, and trickled into her mouth. She went on: "I thought you were dead, too?--my poor Celestin." He said: "I would not have recognized you myself--you were such a little thing then, and here you are so big!--but how is it that you did not recognize me?" She answered with a despairing movement of her hands: "I see so many men that they all seem to me alike." He kept his eyes still fixed on her intently, oppressed by an emotion that dazed him, and filled him with such pain as to make him long to cry like a little child that has been whipped. He still held her in his arms, while she sat astride on his knees, with his open hands against the girl's back; and now by sheer dint of looking continually at her, he at length recognized her, the little sister left behind in the country with all those whom she had seen die, while he had been tossing on the seas. Then, suddenly taking between his big seaman's paws this head found once more, he began to kiss her, as one kisses kindred flesh. And after that, sobs, a man's deep sobs, heaving like great billows, rose up in his throat, resembling the hiccoughs of drunkenness. He stammered: "And this is you--this is you, Francoise--my little Francoise!"-- Then, all at once, he sprang up, began swearing in an awful voice, and struck the table such a blow with his fists that the glasses were knocked down and smashed. After that, he advanced three steps, staggered, stretched out his arms, and fell on his face. And he rolled on the ground, crying out, beating the floor with his hands and feet, and uttering such groans that they seemed like a death-rattle. All those comrades of his stared at him, and laughed. "He's not a bit drunk," said one. "He ought to be put to bed," said another. "If he goes out, we'll all be run in together."