The yard door reopened, old Amable again presented himself. As soon as he had come in, he looked round on every side with the air of an old dog on the scent. He was in search of Victor Lecoq. As he did not see him, he took the candle off the table, and approached the dark niche in which his son had died. In the interior of it he perceived the man lying under the bed clothes and already asleep. Then the deaf man noiselessly turned round, put back the candle, and went out into the yard.
Céleste had finished her work. She put her son into his bed, arranged everything, and waited her father-in-law's return before lying down herself beside Victor.
She remained sitting on a chair, without moving her hands, and with her eyes fixed on vacancy.
As he did not come back she murmured in a tone of impatience and annoyance:
"This good-for-nothing old man will burn four sous' worth of candle on us."
Victor answered her from under the bed clothes.
"'Tis over an hour since he went out. We'd want to see whether he fell asleep on the bench before the door."
She declared:
"I'm going there."
She rose up, took the light, and went out, making a shade of her hand in order to see through the darkness.