It was Marceline who got up this time. She pulled open the door of the office, and came back at once towards Théophraste, and said with a voice so weak that it seemed far away, “You did not, then, put the cat back on the desk?”
“But I did,” growled Théophraste.
“Well, but it is back on the tea-table.”
“My God!” said the man hiding his head under the coverings.
Marceline was convinced that, in the disordered condition of his mind, he had left the cat on the tea-table. She took it, holding her breath, and put it on the table. The cat rattled audibly again as she did it, but neither Marceline nor Théophraste saw anything in this. Marceline went back to bed again.
Another quarter of an hour passed, at the end of which they again heard the same noise. Then an incredible thing happened. Théophraste turned like a tiger and cried out, “What is it? It is only too true, something unusual is happening.”