"By what do you swear?"
"Anything you choose."
"Have you a daughter?"
"No."
"Well, then," said the woman, in a disappointed tone, "by what then will you swear?"
"Listen. I swear by God."
"Bah!" exclaimed the woman Tison, "you know very well they have demolished the old one, and have not yet decided on the new."
"I swear by the tomb of my father."
"Swear not by a tomb, for that is prophetic of evil. Oh, my God! my God! When I think that perhaps in three days I may swear by the tomb of my child also! My daughter! My poor Héloïse!" cried the woman Tison, frantically, till at the sound of her voice, raised to a shrill scream, several windows were opened.
At sight of the opened windows, another man, who seemed to detach himself from the wall, advanced toward the first.