n, after a
short silence, she went on: 'I was there--by his side.' And she uttered
a sort of cry of horror, and after a fit of choking, which made her
gasp, she wept violently, and shook with spasmodic sobs for a minute: or
two. Then her tears suddenly ceased, as if by an internal fire, and with
an air of tragic calmness, she said: 'Let us make haste.'

"I was ready, but exclaimed: 'I quite forgot to order my carriage.' 'I
have one,' she said; 'it is his, which was waiting for him!' She wrapped
herself up, so as to completely conceal her face, and we started.

"When she was by my side in the carriage she suddenly seized my hand,
and crushing it in her delicate fingers, she said, with a shaking voice,
that proceeded from a distracted heart: 'Oh! if you only knew, if
you only knew what I am suffering! I loved him, I have loved him
distractedly, like a madwoman, for the last six months.' 'Is anyone
up in your house?' I asked. 'No, nobody except those, who knows
everything.'

"We stopped at the door, and evidently everybody was asleep. We went in
without making any noise, by means of her latch-key, and walked upstairs
on tiptoe. The frightened servant was sitting on the top of the stairs
with a lighted candle by her side, as she was afraid to remain with the
dead man, and I went into the room, which was in great disorder. Wet
towels, with which they had bathed the young man's temples, were lying
on the floor, by the side of a washbasin and a glass, while a strong
smell of vinegar pervaded the room.

"The dead man's body was lying at full length in the middle of the room,
and I went up to it, looked at it, and touched it. I opened the eyes and
felt the hands, and then, turning to the two women, who were shaking as
if they were freezing, I said to them: 'Help me to lift him on to the
bed.' When we had laid him gently on it, I listened to his heart and put
a looking-glass to his lips, and then said: 'It is all over.' It was a
terrible sight!

"I looked at the man, and said: 'You ought to arrange his hair a
little.' The girl went and brought her mistress' comb and brush, but as
she was trembling, and pulling out his long, matted hair in doing it,
Madame Lelievre took the comb out of her hand, and arranged his hair as
if she were caressing him. She parted it, brushed his beard, rolled his
mustaches gently round her fingers, then, suddenly, letting go of his
hair, she took the dead man's inert head in her hands and looked fo