The old woman smiled, and led him into the former salon, which was now her bed-chamber.
"You shall see," she said.
Madame Descoings hastily unmade the bed, and searched for her scissors to rip the mattress; she put on her spectacles, looked at the ticking, saw the hole, and let fall the mattress.

Hearing a sigh from the depths of the old woman's breast, as though she were strangled by a rush of blood to the heart, Joseph instinctively held out his arms to catch the poor creature, and placed her fainting in a chair, calling to his mother to come to them.

Agathe rose, slipped on her dressing-gown, and ran in.

By the light of a candle, she applied the ordinary remedies,--eau-de-cologne to the temples, cold water to the forehead, a burnt feather under the nose,--and presently her aunt revived.
"They were there is morning; HE has taken them, the monster!" she said.
"Taken what ?" asked Joseph.
"I had twenty louis in my mattress; my savings for two years; no one but Philippe could have taken them." "But when ?" cried the poor mother, overwhelmed, "he has not been in since breakfast." "I wish I might be mistaken," said the old woman.

"But this morning in Joseph's studio, when I spoke before Philippe of my stakes, I had a presentiment.