Following the old dame to her den Loupart entered with difficulty, on account of the great quantity of heterogeneous objects with which it was crowded. The product of innumerable thefts lay heaped up pell-mell in this illicit bazaar.
Dame Toulouche, having shut the door, plunged into her subject.
"Big Ernestine is furious with you, Loupart."
"If she's threatening me," the hooligan replied, "I'll soon fix her."
"No, big Ernestine didn't want to fight, but she was annoyed at the public affront put upon her by Josephine's lover when he drove her from 'The Good Comrades' the evening before last without any reason."
"Without any reason!" growled Loupart. "Then what was her business with those spies, the Sapper and Nonet?"
"That can't be! Not the Sapper!"
"Spies, I tell you; they belong to headquarters."
The old receiver of stolen goods cast up her eyes. "And they looked such decent people, too! Who can one trust?"
Loupart, for reply, suddenly picked up a scarf pin set with a diamond, and, tossing the old Woman a five-dollar piece, said as he left the room: "You can tell Ernestine that I bear her no malice."