"Are you alone?"
"No other man, excepting the doctor, is allowed to enter the dead-house. It is written on the wall."
"Could you hide me in that house to-night, when all are asleep in the convent?"
"No; but I can hide you in a dark hole opening out of the dead-house, in which I put the burial tools, of which I have the key."
"At what hour to-morrow will the hearse come to fetch the body?"
"At three in the afternoon. The interment takes place at the Vaugirard cemetery a little before nightfall, for the ground is not very near here."
"I will remain concealed in your tool-house during the night and morning. How about food? For I shall be hungry."
"I will bring you some."
"You can nail me up in the coffin at two o'clock." Fauchelevent recoiled and cracked his finger-bones.
"Oh, it is impossible!"