"Did you notice the mother well?" he asked at last, after a silence, possessed internally by the sombre image.
"My God! My God!"
"And that old woman who touched your elbow! What a voice! What eyes!"
His words betrayed the strange fright which dominated him, as if the recent spectacle had been a frightful revelation to him, as if life had suddenly been made manifest to him under a mysterious and savage aspect, bruising and stamping him with an indelible sign.
"You know, when I entered the house, on the ground behind the door there was the corpse of some beast—already half-decomposed. The smell was simply choking."
"What do you mean?"
"It was either a cat or a dog. I could not distinguish very well. It was difficult to see well inside."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, yes. Without any doubt there was a dead animal. The stench——"
A shudder of disgust ran through him as he thought of it.