But he quickly silenced her.
"Hush! hush!" he whispered.
And she, fancying he might be pursued by the portress, lowered her voice. No; as he was about to ring, he had the luck to see the door open to let out a lady and her daughter, who had no doubt come down from the Dauvergnes; and he had been able to come up unperceived. Only there, on the landing, through the door standing ajar, he had just caught sight of the newsvendor woman who was finishing a little washing in a basin.
"Let us make as little noise as possible," said he. "Speak low."
Séverine replied by squeezing him passionately in her arms and covering his face with silent kisses. This game of mystery, speaking no louder than a whisper, diverted her.
"Yes, yes," she said; "you shall see: we will be as quiet as two little mice."
She took all kinds of precautions in laying the table: two plates, two glasses, two knives, stopping with a desire to burst out laughing when one article, set down too hastily, rang against another.
Jacques, who was watching her, also became amused.
"I thought you would be hungry," said he in a low voice.
"Why, I am famished!" she answered. "We dined so badly at Rouen!"