At last, however, the door opened, and when Courtin's eyes fell upon the scene before him he was so unprepared for what he saw that he actually recoiled from the threshold.
"Who is dead here?" he asked.
"Look!" replied the widow, without leaving her seat in the chimney-corner, which she had resumed after opening the door.
Courtin turned his eyes again to the bed, and though he could see beneath the sheet only the outline of a man's form, he guessed the truth.
"Pascal!" he cried; "is it Pascal?"
"I thought you knew it," said the widow.
"I?"
"Yes, you,--you, who are the chief cause of his death."
"I?--I?" replied Courtin, remembering what Joseph had just said to him, and feeling it all-important for his own safety to deny his share in the matter. "I swear to you, on the word of an honest man, that I have not seen your husband for over a week."
"Don't swear," replied the widow. "Pascal never swore; neither did he lie."