"What is it now, Gildas?"
"Oh, madam! Down there—the drums—they were about to turn the corner—"
"Well?"
"A lot of men in blouses stopped them—they have broken the drums. Listen! Madam! Look! The whole crowd is running this way. Do you hear them screaming, madam? Should we not close the shop?"
"It is very evident, Gildas, you are none too brave," said Mademoiselle Lebrenn without raising her eyes from her needlework.
At that moment a man clad in a blouse and dragging with difficulty a small handbarrow that seemed to be heavily loaded, stopped before the door, pulled the barrow up alongside the sidewalk, stepped into the shop, and accosted the merchant's wife:
"Monsieur Lebrenn, madam?"
"This is his place."
"I have here four bales for him."
"Linen, I suppose?" asked Madam Lebrenn.