the opening, strains of the Casino band, which was playing
on an elevation overlooking the park.

And I saw the father and the daughter advancing slowly in my direction. I
bowed as one bows to one's hotel companions at a watering place; and the
man, coming to a sudden halt, said to me:

"Could you not, monsieur, tell us of a nice walk to take, short, pretty,
and not steep; and pardon my troubling you?"

I offered to show them the way toward the valley through which the little
river flowed, a deep valley forming a gorge between two tall, craggy,
wooded slopes.

They gladly accepted my offer.

And we talked, naturally, about the virtue of the waters.

"Oh," he said, "my daughter has a strange malady, the seat of which is
unknown. She suffers from incomprehensible nervous attacks. At one time
the doctors think she has an attack of heart disease, at another time
they imagine it is some affection of the liver, and at another they
declare it to be a disease of the spine. To-day this protean malady, that
assumes a thousand forms and a thousand modes of attack, is attributed to
the stomach, which is the great caldron and regulator of the body. This
is why we have come here. For my part, I am rather inclined to think it
is the nerves. In any case it is very sad."

Immediately the remembrance of the violent spasmodic movement of his hand
came back to my mind, and I asked him:

"But is this not the result of heredity? Are not your own nerves somewhat
affected?"

He replied calmly:

"Mine? Oh, no-my nerves have always been very steady."

Then, suddenly, after a pause, he went on:

"Ah! You were alluding to the jerking movement of my hand every time I
try to reach for anything? This arises from a terrible experience which I
had. Just imagine, this daughter of mine was actually buried alive!"

I could only utter, "Ah!" so great were my astonishment and emotion.

He continued:

"Here is the story. It is simple. Juliette had been subject for some time
to serious attacks of the heart. We believed that she had disease of that
organ, and were prepared for the worst.

"One day she was carried into the house cold, lifeless, dead. She had
fallen down unconscious in the garden. The doctor certified that life was
extinct. I watched by her side for a day and two nights. I laid her with
my own hands in the coffin, which I accompanied to the cemetery, where
she was deposited in the family vault. It is situated in the very hear