the
doors, and said: 'Gracious! how stupid I am! Oh, how thoughtless! My
wife will never forgive me for that!'

"I already felt like thanking him. I left three days later, after
cordially shaking hands with the two men and kissing the lady's fingers.
She bade me a cold good-by."

Karl Massouligny was silent. Some one asked: "But what was the friend?"

"I don't know--however--however he looked greatly distressed to see me
leaving so soon."

A SALE

The defendants, Cesaire-Isidore Brument and Prosper-Napoleon Cornu,
appeared before the Court of Assizes of the Seine-Inferieure, on a
charge of attempted murder, by drowning, of Mme. Brument, lawful wife of
the first of the aforenamed.

The two prisoners sat side by side on the traditional bench. They were
two peasants; the first was small and stout, with short arms, short
legs, and a round head with a red pimply face, planted directly on his
trunk, which was also round and short, and with apparently no neck. He
was a raiser of pigs and lived at Cacheville-la-Goupil, in the district
of Criquetot.

Cornu (Prosper-Napoleon) was thin, of medium height, with enormously
long arms. His head was on crooked, his jaw awry, and he squinted. A
blue blouse, as long as a shirt, hung down to his knees, and his yellow
hair, which was scanty and plastered down on his head, gave his face a
worn-out, dirty look, a dilapidated look that was frightful. He had been
nicknamed "the cure" because he could imitate to perfection the chanting
in church, and even the sound of the serpent. This talent attracted
to his cafe--for he was a saloon keeper at Criquetot--a great many
customers who preferred the "mass at Cornu" to the mass in church.

Mme. Brument, seated on the witness bench, was a thin peasant woman who
seemed to be always asleep. She sat there motionless, her hands crossed
on her knees, gazing fixedly before her with a stupid expression.

The judge continued his interrogation.

"Well, then, Mme. Brument, they came into your house and threw you into
a barrel full of water. Tell us the details. Stand up."

She rose. She looked as tall as a flag pole with her cap which looked
like a white skull cap. She said in a drawling tone:

"I was shelling beans. Just then they came in. I said to myself, 'What
is the matter with them? They do not seem natural, they seem up to
some mischief.' They watched me sideways, like this, especially Cornu,
because he squints. I do not like to see