ee my singular
treasure, and I took it out and, as I touched it, I felt a shiver go all
through me.

"For some days, however, I was in my ordinary condition, although the
thought of that tress of hair was always present to my mind.

"Whenever I came into the house I had to see it and take it in my hands.
I turned the key of the cabinet with the same hesitation that one opens
the door leading to one's beloved, for in my hands and my heart I felt
a confused, singular, constant sensual longing to plunge my hands in the
enchanting golden flood of those dead tresses.

"Then, after I had finished caressing it and had locked the cabinet I
felt as if it were a living thing, shut up in there, imprisoned; and I
longed to see it again. I felt again the imperious desire to take it in
my hands, to touch it, to even feel uncomfortable at the cold, slippery,
irritating, bewildering contact.

"I lived thus for a month or two, I forget how long. It obsessed me,
haunted me. I was happy and tormented by turns, as when one falls in
love, and after the first vows have been exchanged.

"I shut myself in the room with it to feel it on my skin, to bury my
lips in it, to kiss it. I wound it round my face, covered my eyes with
the golden flood so as to see the day gleam through its gold.

"I loved it! Yes, I loved it. I could not be without it nor pass an hour
without looking at it.

"And I waited--I waited--for what? I do not know--For her!

"One night I woke up suddenly, feeling as though I were not alone in my
room.

"I was alone, nevertheless, but I could not go to sleep again, and, as
I was tossing about feverishly, I got up to look at the golden tress.
It seemed softer than usual, more life-like. Do the dead come back? I
almost lost consciousness as I kissed it. I took it back with me to bed
and pressed it to my lips as if it were my sweetheart.

"Do the dead come back? She came back. Yes, I saw her; I held her in my
arms, just as she was in life, tall, fair and round. She came back every
evening--the dead woman, the beautiful, adorable, mysterious unknown.

"My happiness was so great that I could not conceal it. No lover ever
tasted such intense, terrible enjoyment. I loved her so well that
I could not be separated from her. I took her with me always and
everywhere. I walked about the town with her as if she were my wife, and
took her to the theatre, always to a private box. But they saw her--they
guessed--they arrested me. T