shook as he unfolded the letter, and a veil fell before
his eyes. For one moment he had the idea to put the letter in his
pocket, and say he would read it later on, for it was torture to him
that Schrotter should be a witness of the emotion he knew he must feel
on reading it. But of what use was it to dissemble? Schrotter would
have to know. He glanced over Auguste's stiff characters.

The man wrote in his ill-bred tone, with spelling to match:

"PARIS, March 26, 1880.

"MONSIEUR LE DOCTEUR: It is a week now since you left, and time that
you should know what has been going on during that time. It was as good
as a play! But you shall hear.

"When Madame la Comtesse came home, and I opened the door to her, I
said nothing, but I thought to myself--what a row there will be
presently. And sure enough, she had hardly set foot in her rooms when
we heard an awful scream. It didn't scare me, because I knew all about
it; but Isabel came tumbling out, and howled in French and Spanish
mixed: 'Is it a fire? Are there thieves in the house?' It was enough to
make you die of laughing.

"I was called upstairs and questioned by Anne--the countess had not the
strength. She was kneeling in her ball-dress beside the bed, her face
buried in the pillows that still showed the pressure of your head, and
crying as if her heart would break. I know that madame cries very
easily--she has always been that way as long as I have known her--but I
really should not have thought, to look at her, that she could hold
such a quantity of tears. Anne cross-examined me like a magistrate, but
of course I made an innocent face, and knew nothing at all. I saw
plainly that she did not really care a bit, the viper, for while she
was cross-questioning me she gave me a look once or twice that told me
quite enough. But Madame la Comtesse is very sharp. She saw at once
that I knew more than I had a mind to tell. She turned a face to me, as
white as a cheese, and looked at me with such eyes, that I might well
have been frightened if I had not--I may say it without boasting--been
born in Carpentras. At first she tried it with kindness, and then she
threatened to turn me out of the house that minute, and then she wanted
to bribe me by all sorts of promises--ma foi! it was not a very easy
moment, but I stood firm, and madame threw herself back on the bed, and
the tap was turned on full again. Would you believe it, that that Anne
had the face to say to madame she ha