The hours for meals were all deranged, the table stood ready all day long, and one ate when there was a chance.

The telephone was in constant use, and at every moment messenger boys came and went, people spoke in low tones, walking on tiptoe; the florist's wagon drove to the door again and again, and the house began to smell of tuberoses.

Reporters came, waiting patiently for interviews, sitting on the leather chairs in the dining-room, or writing rapidly on a corner of the dining-table, the cloth pushed back.

The undertaker's assistants went about in their shirt-sleeves, working very hard, and toward the middle of the afternoon the undertaker himself tied the crepe to the bell handle.
Little by little a subdued excitement spread throughout the vicinity.
The neighbours appeared at their windows, looking down into the street, watching everything that went on.

It was a veritable event, a matter of comment and interest for the whole block.