her first
ball-dress on.

"You may easily imagine the state of mind in which I was when I
returned home. She was the only one I had, for my wife has been dead
for many years. I found my way to my own apartment in a half
distracted condition, utterly exhausted, and I sank into my
easy-chair, without the capacity to think or the strength to move. I
was nothing better now than a suffering, vibrating machine, a human
being who had, as it were, been flayed alive; my soul was like a
living wound.

"My old valet, Prosper, who had assisted me in placing Juliette in her
coffin, and preparing her for her last sleep, entered the room
noiselessly, and asked:

"'Does monsieur want anything?'

"I merely shook my head, by way of answering 'No.'

"He urged, 'Monsieur is wrong. He will bring some illness on himself.
Would monsieur like me to put him to bed?'

"I answered, 'No! let me alone!'

"And he left the room.

"I know not how many hours slipped away. Oh! what a night, what a
night! It was cold. My fire had died out in the huge grate; and the
wind, the winter wind, an icy wind, a hurricane accompanied by frost
and snow, kept blowing against the window with a sinister and regular
noise.

"How many hours slipped away? There I was without sleeping, powerless,
crushed, my eyes wide open, my legs stretched out, my body limp,
inanimate, and my mind torpid with despair. Suddenly, the great bell
of the entrance gate, the great bell of the vestibule, rang out.

"I got such a shock that my chair cracked under me. The solemn,
ponderous sound vibrated through the empty chateau as if through a
vault. I turned round to see what the hour was by the clock. It was
just two in the morning. Who could be coming at such an hour!

"And abruptly the bell again rang twice. The servants, without doubt,
were afraid to get up. I took a wax-candle and descended the stairs. I
was on the point of asking, 'Who is there?'

"Then I felt ashamed of my weakness, and I slowly opened the huge
door. My heart was throbbing wildly; I was frightened; I hurriedly
drew back the door, and in the darkness I distinguished a white
figure, standing erect, something that resembled an apparition.

"I recoiled, petrified with horror, faltering:

"'Who--who--who are you?'

"A voice replied:

"'It is I, father.'

"It was my daughter.

"I really thought I must be mad, and I retreated backwards before this
advancing specter. I kept moving away, making a sign w