is_.--She uttered a faint
cry, seized the ring, reeled, fell upon my breast, and fairly swooned
there, with her head thrown back and devouring me with those wide, mad
eyes. I encircled her waist with both arms, and standing still on one
spot, never stirring, I slowly narrated everything, without the
slightest reservation, to her, in a quiet voice: my dream and the
meeting, and everything, everything.... She heard me out to the end,
only her breast heaved more and more strongly, and her eyes suddenly
grew more animated and drooped. Then she put the ring on her fourth
finger, and, retreating a little, began to get out a mantilla and a hat.
I asked where she was going. She raised a surprised glance to me and
tried to answer, but her voice failed her. She shuddered several times,
rubbed her hands as though endeavouring to warm herself, and at last she
said: "Let us go at once thither."

"Whither, mother dear?"

"Where he is lying.... I want to see ... I want to know ... I shall
identify...."

I tried to persuade her not to go; but she was almost in hysterics. I
understood that it was impossible to oppose her desire, and we set out.

XVII

And lo, again I am walking over the sand of the dunes, but I am no
longer alone, I am walking arm in arm with my mother. The sea has
retreated, has gone still further away; it is quieting down; but even
its diminished roar is menacing and ominous. Here, at last, the solitary
rock has shown itself ahead of us--and there is the seaweed. I look
intently, I strive to distinguish that rounded object lying on the
ground--but I see nothing. We approach closer. I involuntarily retard my
steps. But where is that black, motionless thing? Only the stalks of the
seaweed stand out darkly against the sand, which is already dry.... We
go to the very rock.... The corpse is nowhere to be seen, and only on
the spot where it had lain there still remains a depression, and one can
make out where the arms and legs lay.... Round about the seaweed seems
tousled, and the traces of one man's footsteps are discernible; they go
across the down, then disappear on reaching the flinty ridge.

My mother and I exchange glances and are ourselves frightened at what we
read on our own faces....

Can he have got up of himself and gone away?

"But surely thou didst behold him dead?" she asks in a whisper.

I can only nod my head. Three hours have not elapsed since I stumbled
upon the baron's body.... Some on