on. Suddenly somebody came in with a lamp, without seeing me,
however, and I heard my father and mother talking with the medical man,
whose voice I recognized.

He had been sent for immediately, and he was explaining the causes of
the accident, of which I understood nothing, however. Then he sat down
and had a glass of liquor and biscuit.

He went on talking, and what he then said will remain engraved on my
mind until I die! I think that I can give the exact words which he used.

"Ah!" said he, "the poor woman! She broke her leg the day of my arrival
here, and I had only not even had time to wash my hands after getting
off the diligence before I was sent for in all haste, for it was a bad
case, very bad.

"She was seventeen, and a pretty girl, very pretty! Would any one
believe it? I have never told her story before, and nobody except myself
and one other person, who is no longer living in this part of the
country, ever knew it. Now that she is dead, I may be less discreet.

"Just then a young assistant teacher came to live in the village; he was
good-looking and had the bearing of a sub-officer. All the girls ran
after him, and he acted the disdainful, and besides that, he was very
much afraid of his superior, the schoolmaster, old Grabu, who
occasionally got out of bed the wrong foot first.

"Old Grabu already employed pretty Hortense, who has just died here, and
who was afterwards nicknamed Clochette. The assistant master singled
out the pretty young girl, who was no doubt flattered at being chosen by
this impregnable conqueror; at any rate, she fell in love with him, and
he succeeded in persuading her to give him a first meeting in the
hay-loft behind the school, at night, after she had done her day's
sewing.

"She pretended to go home, but instead of going downstairs when she left
the Grabu's, she went upstairs and hid among the hay, to wait for her
lover. He soon joined her, and he was beginning to say pretty things to
her, when the door of the hay-loft opened and the schoolmaster appeared,
and asked: 'What are you doing up there, Sigisbert?' Feeling sure that
he would be caught, the young schoolmaster lost his presence of mind and
replied stupidly: 'I came up here to rest a little among the bundles of
hay, Monsieur Grabu.'

"The loft was very large and absolutely dark, and Sigisbert pushed the
frightened girl to the further end and said: 'Go there and hide
yourself. I shall lose my situation, so get away