OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

86 MAINLY MAIGRET
air; a hateful picture of the scene in Elie's bedroom had risen before
her eyes. " I never dreamt a man could get in such a state. In all
my born days IVe never seen nothing like it, not even at the
pictures. He bit his lips till the blood came, and he kept howling
for his ma."
Unconsciously she was glancing over her shoulder towards the
hall and the door behind which that dreadful scene had taken place.
" You know what they do to ... to murderers in France, don't
you? " And when he made no answer she added with a nervous sob:
" They chop their heads off! "
Dropping the onion and knife on the table, she lifted her apron
with both hands and hid her face in it. Moise murmured awkwardly:
" Oh, Madame Baron . .. please don't take on like that! "
Her shoulders heaved and, her face still hidden in the apron, she
said weakly:
" Don't take no notice. I'll be better in a minute. Only, it was
such a shock, you know...."
Timidly Moise laid his hand on her shoulder; that was the
furthest he dared go.
" If you'd seen him! " she moaned. " He looked such a poor
miserable little shrimp, shivering and shaking in his pyjamas, like
a kid that's scared out of his wits. One couldn't but be sorry for
him. All skin and bone. ..."
" Madame Baron, do please compose yourself. You'll only make
yourself ill."
She wiped her eyes and cheeks and, as she smoothed out her
apron, conjured up a feeble smile.
" There! I'm better now."
The window had blown open. She went and drew it to.
" I may have made a mistake. But he swore to me that if I let
him stay a few days longer he'd be safe. He has five hundred francs
left; I saw them. But five hundred won't take him far."
A new thought waylaid her. She raised the lid of the soup-tureen
and, after fumbling feverishly in it, dropped the thousand-franc
note into the fire.
" I'd never have breathed a word of this to anyone else. But I
know you'll give me good advice, Monsieur Moise. Don't you agree
that we can let him stay on for a day or two more? The police think
he's miles away, and anyhow they'd never dream of looking for
him in a quiet little house like this, would they? " Fearing she had
not yet convinced him, she added: "Jh was when he spoke about his