"He is travelling."
"Bompain Jean-Baptiste then?"
"He's at the Chamber with Monsieur."
Her great gray eyebrows contracted.
"No matter; take my trunk upstairs all the same."
And, with a malicious little twitching of the eye, a touch of pride, of vengeance for the insolent glances turned upon her, she added:
"I am his mother."
Scullions and grooms stood aside respectfully. M. Barreau raised his cap:
"I was saying to myself that I had seen Madame somewhere."
"That's just what I was saying to myself too, my boy," said Mère Jansoulet, shuddering at the memory of the ill-fated festivities in honor of the bey.