o a strange case of complete mental collapse was
received into the Hotel-Dieu. A fresh healthy girl, of the working
class, about twenty years of age, and comfortably dressed,
presented herself at a police-station near the Odeon and asked for
shelter. As she did not appear to be in full possession of her
mental faculties, she was sent to the Hotel-Dieu, where she
remained in a semi-comatose condition. Her memory did not go
farther back than the hour of her application at the
police-station. She was entirely ignorant of her previous history,
and had even forgotten her name. The minds of the medical staff of
the Hotel-Dieu were very much exercised with her condition; but it
was not till about a week ago that they succeeded in restoring to
any extent her mental consciousness and her memory. She then
remembered the events immediately preceding her application to the
police. It had come on to rain, she said, and she was hurrying
along to escape from it, when a gentleman in a cloak came to her
side and politely offered to give her the shelter of his umbrella.
She accepted; the gentleman seemed old and ill. He asked her to
take his arm. She did so, and very soon she felt as if her strength
had gone from her; a cold shiver crept over her; she trembled and
tottered; but with all that she did not find her sensations
disagreeable exactly or alarming; so little so, indeed, that she
never thought of letting go the gentleman's arm. Her head buzzed,
and a kind of darkness came over her. Then all seemed to clear, and
she found herself alone near the police-station, remembering
nothing. Being asked to further describe the gentleman, she said he
was tall and dark, with a pleasant voice and wonderful eyes, that
made you feel you must do whatever he wished. The police have made
inquiries, but after such a lapse of time it is not surprising that
no trace of him can be found."

"Well?" asked Embro, when Lefevre had raised his eyes from the paper.
"What do you think of it?"

"Curious," said Lefevre. "I can't say more, since I know nothing of it
but this. Have you read it, Julius?"

"No," said Julius; "I hate what people call news; and when I take up a
paper, it's only to look at the Weather Forecasts." Lefevre handed him
the paper, which he took with an unconcealed look of repulsion. "If it's
some