the bottom of the
hole, in eight feet of water, as I have said. There he was, the poor
little man, in his linen suit! Those are the facts such as I have sworn
to. I am innocent, on my honor."

The witnesses having given testimony to the same effect, the accused was
acquitted.

THE SPASM

The hotel guests slowly entered the dining-room and took their places.
The waiters did not hurry themselves, in order to give the late comers a
chance and thus avoid the trouble of bringing in the dishes a second
time. The old bathers, the habitues, whose season was almost over,
glanced, gazed toward the door whenever it opened, to see what new faces
might appear.

This is the principal distraction of watering places. People look forward
to the dinner hour in order to inspect each day's new arrivals, to find
out who they are, what they do, and what they think. We always have a
vague desire to meet pleasant people, to make agreeable acquaintances,
perhaps to meet with a love adventure. In this life of elbowings, unknown
strangers assume an extreme importance. Curiosity is aroused, sympathy is
ready to exhibit itself, and sociability is the order of the day.

We cherish antipathies for a week and friendships for a month; we see
people with different eyes, when we view them through the medium of
acquaintanceship at watering places. We discover in men suddenly, after
an hour's chat, in the evening after dinner, under the trees in the park
where the healing spring bubbles up, a high intelligence and astonishing
merits, and a month afterward we have completely forgotten these new
friends, who were so fascinating when we first met them.

Permanent and serious ties are also formed here sooner than anywhere
else. People see each other every day; they become acquainted very
quickly, and their affection is tinged with the sweetness and unrestraint
of long-standing intimacies. We cherish in after years the dear and
tender memories of those first hours of friendship, the memory of those
first conversations in which a soul was unveiled, of those first glances
which interrogate and respond to questions and secret thoughts which the
mouth has not as yet uttered, the memory of that first cordial
confidence, the memory of that delightful sensation of opening our hearts
to those who seem to open theirs to us in return.

And the melancholy of watering places, the monotony of days that are all
alike, proves hourly an incentive to this heart ex