The idea of the Alkahest had swept like a conflagration through the building.

Her father's bedroom had a bed, one chair, and one table, on which stood a miserable pewter candlestick with a tallow candle burned almost to the socket.

The house was so completely stripped that not so much as a curtain remained at the windows.

Every object of the smallest value,--everything, even the kitchen utensils, had been sold.
Moved by that feeling of curiosity which never entirely leaves us even in moments of misfortune, Marguerite entered Lemulquinier's chamber and found it as bare as that of his master.

In a half-opened table-drawer she found a pawnbroker's ticket for the old servant's watch which he had pledged some days before.