Accordingly, two days later, when the Abbe Chaperon, with an assistant and the choir-boys, preceded by the sacristan bearing the cross, passed along the Grand'Rue, all the heirs joined the procession, to get an entrance to the house and see that nothing was abstracted, and lay their eager hands upon its coveted treasures at the earliest moment.
When the doctor saw, behind the clergy, the row of kneeling heirs, who instead of praying were looking at him with eyes that were brighter than the tapers, he could not restrain a smile.

The abbe turned round, saw them, and continued to say the prayers slowly.

The post master was the first to abandon the kneeling posture; his wife followed him.

Massin, fearing that Zelie and her husband might lay hands on some ornament, joined them in the salon, where all the heirs were presently assembled one by one.
"He is too honest a man to steal extreme unction," said Cremiere; "we may be sure of his death now." "Yes, we shall each get about twenty thousand francs a year," replied Madame Massin.
"I have an idea," said Zelie, "that for the last three years he hasn't invested anything--he grew fond of hoarding." "Perhaps the money is in the cellar," whispered Massin to Cremiere.
"I hope we shall be able to find it," said Minoret-Levrault.
"But after what he said at the ball we can't have any doubt," cried Madame Massin.
"In any case," began Cremiere, "how shall we manage?
Shall we divide; shall we go to law; or could we draw lots?
We are adults, you know--" A discussion, which soon became angry, now arose as to the method of procedure.

At the end of half an hour a perfect uproar of voices, Zelie's screeching organ detaching itself from the rest, resounded in the courtyard and even in the street.
The noise reached the doctor's ears; he heard the words, "The house--the house is worth thirty thousand francs.