as he is a psychologist, he is afraid of some day yielding to the
irresistible temptation of confessing his crimes. You know better than
anyone (and that is your most powerful aid), with what imperious force
criminals, especially intellectual ones, feel this temptation. That
great Poet, Edgar Poe, has written masterpieces on this subject, which
express the truth exactly, but he has omitted to mention the last
phenomenon, which I will tell you. Yes, I, a criminal, feel a terrible
wish for somebody to know of my crimes, and when this requirement is
satisfied, my secret has been revealed to a confidant, I shall be
tranquil for the future, and be freed from this demon of perversity,
which only tempts us once. Well! Now that is accomplished. You shall
have my secret; from the day that you recognize me by my eyes, you will
try and find out what I am guilty of, and how I was guilty, and you
will discover it, being a master of your profession, which, by the by,
has procured you the honor of having been chosen by me to bear the
weight of this secret, which now is shared by us, and by us two alone.
I say, advisedly, _by us two alone_. You could not, as a matter of
fact, prove the reality of this secret to anyone, unless I were to
confess it, and I defy you to obtain my public confession, as I have
confessed it to you, _and without danger to myself_."

Three months later, Monsieur de Vargnes met Monsieur X---- at an
evening party, and at first sight, and without the slightest
hesitation, he recognized in him those very pale, very cold, and very
clear blue eyes, eyes which it was impossible to forget.

The man himself remained perfectly impassive, so that Monsieur de
Vargnes was forced to say to himself:

"Probably I am the sport of an hallucination at this moment, or else
there are two pairs of eyes that are perfectly similar in the world.
And what eyes! Can it be possible?"

The magistrate instituted inquiries into his life, and he discovered
this, which removed all his doubts.

Five years previously, Monsieur X---- had been a very poor, but very
brilliant medical student, who, although he never took his doctor's
degree, had already made himself remarkable by his microbiological
researches.

A young and very rich widow had fallen in love with him and married
him. She had one child by her first marriage, and in the space of six
months, first the child and then the mother died of typhoid fever, and
thus Monsieur X---- had in