hat no one could hear her unmoved.

The girl Rosalie Prudent was acquitted.

REGRET

Monsieur Saval, who was called in Mantes "Father Saval," had just risen
from bed. He was weeping. It was a dull autumn day; the leaves were
falling. They fell slowly in the rain, like a heavier and slower rain.
M. Saval was not in good spirits. He walked from the fireplace to the
window, and from the window to the fireplace. Life has its sombre days.
It would no longer have any but sombre days for him, for he had reached
the age of sixty-two. He is alone, an old bachelor, with nobody about
him. How sad it is to die alone, all alone, without any one who is
devoted to you!

He pondered over his life, so barren, so empty. He recalled former
days, the days of his childhood, the home, the house of his parents;
his college days, his follies; the time he studied law in Paris, his
father's illness, his death. He then returned to live with his mother.
They lived together very quietly, and desired nothing more. At last the
mother died. How sad life is! He lived alone since then, and now, in his
turn, he, too, will soon be dead. He will disappear, and that will be
the end. There will be no more of Paul Saval upon the earth. What a
frightful thing! Other people will love, will laugh. Yes, people will
go on amusing themselves, and he will no longer exist! Is it not strange
that people can laugh, amuse themselves, be joyful under that eternal
certainty of death? If this death were only probable, one could then
have hope; but no, it is inevitable, as inevitable as that night follows
the day.

If, however, his life had been full! If he had done something; if he had
had adventures, great pleasures, success, satisfaction of some kind or
another. But no, nothing. He had done nothing, nothing but rise from
bed, eat, at the same hours, and go to bed again. And he had gone on
like that to the age of sixty-two years. He had not even taken unto
himself a wife, as other men do. Why? Yes, why was it that he had not
married? He might have done so, for he possessed considerable means. Had
he lacked an opportunity? Perhaps! But one can create opportunities.
He was indifferent; that was all. Indifference had been his greatest
drawback, his defect, his vice. How many men wreck their lives through
indifference! It is so difficult for some natures to get out of bed, to
move about, to take long walks, to speak, to study any question.

He had not even been l