"Come in," said the same voice a second time, a little more emphatically.
"Jacques, I will shriek, I will call for help," said Gervaise.
"Come in, I say!" said the voice a third time, nearer at hand, and at the same moment the door opened.
"Well! what do you want?" said a tall thin man dressed in black, the mere sight of whom made Gervaise tremble from head to foot.
"Mademoiselle here," said Aubry, "has come to enter complaint against a knave who has seduced her."
With that he pushed Gervaise into the black, filthy closet, which served as an anteroom to the lieutenant criminal's office. The door closed behind her as if by a spring.
Gervaise gave a feeble shriek, half terror, half surprise, and sat down, or rather fell, upon a stool which stood against the wall.
Jacques Aubry, meanwhile, lest she should call him back, or run after him, hurried away through corridors known only to law students and advocates, until he reached the courtyard of Sainte-Chapelle; thence he tranquilly pursued his way to Pont Saint-Michel, which it was absolutely certain that Gervaise must cross.
Half an hour later she appeared.
"Well!" said he, running to meet her, "what happened?"