"I would not do it for my life! It is eighteen francs lost that is all.
It will not ruin us."
The next morning he took a walking-stick when he went out, and, luckily,
it was a fine day.
Left at home alone, Mme. Oreille could not get over the loss of her
eighteen francs by any means. She had put the umbrella on the
dining-room table, and she looked at it without being able to come to
any determination.
Every moment she thought of the Assurance Company, but she did not dare
to encounter the quizzical looks of the gentlemen who might receive her,
for she was very timid before people, and grew red at a mere nothing,
and was embarrassed when she had to speak to strangers.
But the regret at the loss of the eighteen francs pained her as if she
had been wounded. She tried not to think of it any more, and yet every
moment the recollection of the loss struck her painfully. What was she
to do, however? Time went on, and she could not decide; but suddenly,
like all cowards, on becoming determined, she made up her mind.
"I will go, and we will see what will happen."
But first of all she was obliged to prepare the umbrella so that the
disaster might be complete, and the reason of it quite evident. She took
a match from the mantelpiece, and between the ribs she burnt a hole as
big as the palm of her hand; then she delicately rolled it up, fastened
it with the elastic band, put on her bonnet and shawl, and went quickly
towards the Rue de Rivoli, where the Assurance Office was.
But the nearer she got the slower she walked. What was she going to say,
and what reply would she get?
She looked at the numbers of the houses; there were still twenty-eight.
That was all right, so she had time to consider, and she walked slower
and slower. Suddenly she saw a door on which was a large brass plate
with "_La Maternelle_ Fire Assurance Office" engraved on it. Already!
She waited for a moment, for she felt nervous and almost ashamed; then
she went past, came back, went past again, and came back again.
At last she said to herself:
"I must go in, however, so I may as well do it sooner as later."
She could not help noticing, however, how her heart beat as she entered.
She went into an enormous room with grated wicket openings all round,
and a man behind each of them, and as a gentleman, carrying a number of
papers, passed her, she stopped him and said, timidly:
"I beg your pardon, Monsieur, but can you tell me where I must apply for
payment for anything that has been accidentally burnt?"
He replied in a sonorous voice:
"The first door on the left; that is the department you want."
This frightened her still more, and she felt inclined to run away, to
make no claim, to sacrifice her eighteen francs. But the idea of that
sum revived her courage, and she went upstairs, out of breath, stopping
at almost every other step.
She knocked at a door which she saw on the first landing, and a clear
voice said, in answer:
"Come in!"
She obeyed mechanically, and found herself in a large room where three
solemn gentlemen, all with a decoration in their buttonholes, were
standing talking.