m sure this gentleman
will see that the grave is deep enough to protect the health of the
public, I believe I may safely grant you the permission you ask. It is
accorded, M'sieur!" and he bowed, full of satisfied amiable authority
and friendly feeling.

I held out my hand to him on the impulse.

"I am extremely obliged to you!"

He grasped it warmly in his, and laid his left effusively on his heart.

"You have my sincere sympathy, M'sieur."

Then lifting his hat and bowing, and putting out of sight the
formidable document he had shaken in my face, he retreated down the
corridor, followed by the other official, and leaving the hotel manager
with me.

"I will have a grave dug at once, M'sieur," he said; "and you shall be
informed when it is ready."

I thanked him and entered my own room.

A good three hours later I was following the gardener downstairs, the
dead body of Nous, wrapped completely in one of my overcoats, in my
arms. We went into the courtyard. It was raining now, the night quite
dark, and a gusty wind blowing. We crossed the yard to where a broad
flower-bed was planted. Here a grave, wide and deep enough for a human
being, had been dug. A lantern, in which the flame blew fitfully, was
set on the huge heap of mould and sent an uncertain light over the
grave. I got down into it, and laid Nous gently, still wrapped in the
coat, on the damp earth, with a heavy heart.

I vaulted out of the grave and stood, while the man filled it in,
listening to the steady fall of the earth and its dull thud, thud. The
rain came down steadily, and the man looked at me and said--

"Monsieur will be drenched through, he had better go within."

"No, no," I said; "continue."

And I waited while he dug away the mound, and the chilly wind rattled
the branches of a tree near, and the rain soaked with a monotonous
splashing into the earth, and the light flickered, barely strong enough
to show me the man's working figure. When he had finished, when the
grave was filled and the upper soil smoothed over, I turned and,
mentally and physically chilled, went slowly back into the hotel. As I
entered the gas-lit corridor I saw a figure there at the door. It was
Howard. He was still in the hotel, and though I detested his proximity
even, I had no influence on his departure. He was evidently hanging
about there waiting for somebody or something, and to my intense
indignation, as he caught sight of me, he came towards me.

"Oh, Vi