I saw, through a bit of iron grating, two dull, light gray eyes staring vacantly at me, and heard a feeble husky voice saying: "What may you please to want ?' "I am a traveler--" I began.
"We live in a miserable place.

We have nothing to show travelers here." "I don't come to see anything.

I have an important question to ask, which I believe some one in this convent will be able to answer.

If you are not willing to let me in, at least come out and speak to me here." "Are you alone ?" "Quite alone." "Are there no women with you ?" "None." The gate was slowly unbarred, and an old Capuchin, very infirm, very suspicious, and very dirty, stood before me.

I was far too excited and impatient to waste any time in prefatory phrases; so, telling the monk at once how I had looked through the hole in the outhouse, and what I had seen inside, I asked him, in plain terms, who the man had been whose corpse I had beheld, and why the body was left unburied?
The old Capuchin listened to me with watery eyes that twinkled suspiciously.