"Send the man away; it must be some beggar who has come to ask alms; I don't see such people; send him away."
"And quickly, too," suggested Mademoiselle Héloïse, "for he is capable of stealing something in your reception room. I shouldn't suppose your concierge would let poor people come upstairs. Is the man a dumb idiot?"
"I don't know if the man will go away," said Mélie. "'You will tell your mistress,' he says, 'that it's Croque who wants to speak to her.'"
When she heard that name, Thélénie turned ghastly pale; she was evidently deeply agitated; her features contracted; she seemed completely crushed, and muttered between her teeth:
"Oh! mon Dieu! he is still alive! I hoped that he was dead!"
"Croque! what a name!" exclaimed Héloïse; "why not Croque-Mitaine and be done with it? Then we should know at all events that he doesn't mean to scare anyone but children!"
"I will go and tell the horrid man to go away, that madame refuses to receive him," said Mélie.
But Thélénie hurriedly arrested the maid, crying:
"No, no; don't do that, Mélie; on the contrary, go to this—this gentleman, and show him in. I am curious to know what he has to say to me.—Do you, Héloïse, step into the salon a moment."
"What! you propose to receive this man? You are not afraid to be left alone with him?"