"And your brother, Mathurin, where"s he now?"
The sailor laughed silently:
"Don"t worry; he"s warm, all right."
And both of them looked toward Jeremie, who was triumphantly putting down the double six and announcing:
"Game!"
Then the owner declared:
"Well, boys, I"m goin" to bed. I will leave you the lamp and the bottle; there"s twenty cents" worth in it. Lock the door when you go, Mathurin, and slip the key under the mat the way you did the other night."
Mathurin answered:
"Don"t worry; it"ll be all right."
Paumelle shook hands with his two customers and slowly went up the wooden stairs. For several minutes his heavy step echoed through the little house. Then a loud creaking announced that he had got into bed.
The two men continued to play. From time to time a more violent gust of wind would shake the whole house, and the two drinkers would look up, as though some one were about to enter. Then Mathurin would take the bottle and fill Jeremie"s gla.s.s. But suddenly the clock over the bar struck twelve. Its hoa.r.s.e clang sounded like the rattling of saucepans. Then Mathurin got up like a sailor whose watch is over.
"Come on, Jeremie, we"ve got to get out."
The other man rose to his feet with difficulty, got his balance by leaning on the table, reached the door and opened it while his companion was putting out the light.
As soon as they were in the street Mathurin locked the door and then said:
"Well, so long. See you to-morrow night!"
And he disappeared in the darkness.
Jeremie took a few steps, staggered, stretched out his hands, met a wall which supported him and began to stumble along. From time to time a gust of wind would sweep through the street, pushing him forward, making him run for a few steps; then, when the wind would die down, he would stop short, having lost his impetus, and once more he would begin to stagger on his unsteady drunkard"s legs.
He went instinctively toward his home, just as birds go to their nests. Finally he recognized his door, and began to feel about for the keyhole and tried to put the key in it. Not finding the hole, he began to swear. Then he began to beat on the door with his fists, calling for his wife to come and help him:
"Melina! Oh, Melina!"
As he leaned against the door for support, it gave way and opened, and Jeremie, losing his prop, fell inside, rolling on his face into the middle of his room, and he felt something heavy pa.s.s over him and escape in the night.
He was no longer moving, dazed by fright, bewildered, fearing the devil, ghosts, all the mysterious beings of darkness, and he waited a long time without daring to move. But when he found out that nothing else was moving, a little reason returned to him, the reason of a drunkard.
Gently he sat up. Again he waited a long time, and at last, growing bolder, he called:
"Melina!"
His wife did not answer.
Then, suddenly, a suspicion crossed his darkened mind, an indistinct, vague suspicion. He was not moving; he was sitting there in the dark, trying to gather together his scattered wits, his mind stumbling over incomplete ideas, just as his feet stumbled along.
Once more he asked:
"Who was it, Melina? Tell me who it was. I won"t hurt you!"
He waited, no voice was raised in the darkness. He was now reasoning with himself out loud.
"I"m drunk, all right! I"m drunk! And he filled me up, the dog; he did it, to stop my goin" home. I"m drunk!"
And he would continue:
"Tell me who it was, Melina, or somethin"ll happen to you."
After having waited again, he went on with the slow and obstinate logic of a drunkard:
"He"s been keeping me at that loafer Paumelle"s place every night, so as to stop my going home. It"s some trick. Oh, you d.a.m.ned carrion!"
Slowly he got on his knees. A blind fury was gaining possession of him, mingling with the fumes of alcohol.
He continued:
"Tell me who it was, Melina, or you"ll get a licking-I warn you!"
He was now standing, trembling with a wild fury, as though the alcohol had set his blood on fire. He took a step, knocked against a chair, seized it, went on, reached the bed, ran his hands over it and felt the warm body of his wife.
Then, maddened, he roared:
"So! You were there, you piece of dirt, and you wouldn"t answer!"
And, lifting the chair, which he was holding in his strong sailor"s grip, he swung it down before him with an exasperated fury. A cry burst from the bed, an agonizing, piercing cry. Then he began to thrash around like a thresher in a barn. And soon nothing more moved. The chair was broken to pieces, but he still held one leg and beat away with it, panting.
At last he stopped to ask:
"Well, are you ready to tell me who it was?"
Melina did not answer.
Then tired out, stupefied from his exertion, he stretched himself out on the ground and slept.
When day came a neighbor, seeing the door open, entered. He saw Jeremie snoring on the floor, amid the broken pieces of a chair, and on the bed a pulp of flesh and blood.
THE WARDROBE
As we sat chatting after dinner, a party of men, the conversation turned on women, for lack of something else.
One of us said: