between his big seaman's paws this head found once
more, he began to kiss her, as one kisses kindred flesh. And after that,
sobs, a man's deep sobs, heaving like great billows, rose up in his
throat, resembling the hiccoughs of drunkenness.

He stammered:

"And this is you--this is you, Francoise--my little Francoise!"--

Then, all at once, he sprang up, began swearing in an awful voice, and
struck the table such a blow with his fists that the glasses were knocked
down and smashed. After that, he advanced three steps, staggered,
stretched out his arms, and fell on his face. And he rolled on the
ground, crying out, beating the floor with his hands and feet, and
uttering such groans that they seemed like a death-rattle.

All those comrades of his stared at him, and laughed.

"He's not a bit drunk," said one.

"He ought to be put to bed," said another. "If he goes out, we'll all be
run in together."

Then, as he had money in his pockets, the landlady offered to let him
have a bed, and his comrades, themselves so much intoxicated that they
could not stand upright, hoisted him up the narrow stairs to the
apartment of the woman who had just been in his company, and who remained
sitting on a chair, at the foot of that bed of crime, weeping quite as
freely as he had wept, until the morning dawned.

THE HERMIT

We had gone to see, with some friends, the old hermit installed on an
antique mound covered with tall trees, in the midst of the vast plain
which extends from Cannes to La Napoule.

On our return we spoke of those strange lay solitaries, numerous in
former times, but now a vanished race. We sought to find out the moral
causes, and endeavored to determine the nature of the griefs which
in bygone days had driven men into solitudes.

All of a sudden one of our companions said:

"I have known two solitaries--a man and a woman. The woman must be
living still. She dwelt, five years ago, on the ruins of a mountain top
absolutely deserted on the coast of Corsica, fifteen or twenty kilometers
away from every house. She lived there with a maid-servant. I went to see
her. She had certainly been a distinguished woman of the world. She
received me with politeness and even in a gracious manner, but I know
nothing about her, and I could find out nothing about her.

"As for the man, I am going to relate to you his ill-omened adventure:

* * * * *

Look round! You see over there th