re through the back door.

My head had begun to ache a little, and with the object of refreshing
myself I set out along the seashore to the extensive park outside the
town, which had been laid out ten years previously. After having
strolled for a couple of hours in the shade of the huge oaks and
plaintain-trees, I returned home.

VII

Our maid-servant flew to meet me, all tremulous with agitation, as soon
as I made my appearance in the anteroom. I immediately divined, from the
expression of her face, that something unpleasant had occurred in our
house during my absence.--And, in fact, I learned that half an hour
before a frightful shriek had rung out from my mother's bedroom. When
the maid rushed in she found her on the floor in a swoon which lasted
for several minutes. My mother had recovered consciousness at last, but
had been obliged to go to bed, and wore a strange, frightened aspect;
she had not uttered a word, she had not replied to questions--she had
done nothing but glance around her and tremble. The servant had sent the
gardener for a doctor. The doctor had come and had prescribed a soothing
potion, but my mother had refused to say anything to him either. The
gardener asserted that a few moments after the shriek had rung out from
my mother's room he had seen a strange man run hastily across the
flower-plots of the garden to the street gate. (We lived in a one-story
house, whose windows looked out upon a fairly large garden.) The
gardener had not been able to get a good look at the man's face; but the
latter was gaunt, and wore a straw hat and a long-skirted coat.... "The
baron's costume!" immediately flashed into my head.--The gardener had
been unable to overtake him; moreover, he had been summoned, without
delay, to the house and despatched for the doctor.

I went to my mother's room; she was lying in bed, whiter than the pillow
on which her head rested.... At sight of me she smiled faintly, and put
out her hand to me. I sat down by her side, and began to question her;
at first she persistently parried my questions; but at last she
confessed that she had seen something which had frightened her greatly.

"Did some one enter here?" I asked.

"No," she answered hastily, "no one entered, but it seemed to me ... I
thought I saw ... a vision...."

She ceased speaking and covered her eyes with her hand. I was on the
point of communicating to her what I had heard from the gardener--and
my meeting with