Taking Madame Claes at once in his arms, he opened the door upon the little antechamber, and ran so rapidly up the ancient wooden staircase that his wife's dress having caught on the jaws of one of the griffins that supported the balustrade, a whole breadth was torn off with a loud noise.

He kicked in the door of the vestibule between their chambers, but the door of Josephine's bedroom was locked.
He gently placed her on a chair, saying to himself, "My God! the key, where is the key ?" "Thank you, dear friend," said Madame Claes, opening her eyes.

"This is the first time for a long, long while that I have been so near your heart." "Good God!" cried Claes, "the key!--here come the servants." Josephine signed to him to take a key that hung from a ribbon at her waist.

After opening the door, Balthazar laid his wife on a sofa, and left the room to stop the frightened servants from coming up by giving them orders to serve the dinner; then he went back to Madame Claes.
"What is it, my dear life ?" he said, sitting down beside her, and taking her hand and kissing it.
"Nothing--now," she answered.

"I suffer no longer.