e latter part of the summer at Etretat, and people
would go out of curiosity every morning to see them taking their bath at
the Etablissment des Roches-Blanches.

Five or six days ago Bapu Sahib Khanderao Ghatay was taken with pains
in his gums; then the inflammation spread to the throat and became
ulceration. Gangrene set in and, on Monday, the doctors told his young
friends that their relative was dying. The final struggle was already
beginning, and the breath had almost left the unfortunate man's body
when his friends seized him, snatched him from his bed and laid him on
the stone floor of the room, so that, stretched out on the earth, our
mother, he should yield up his soul, according to the command of Brahma.

They then sent to ask the mayor, M. Boissaye, for a permit to burn the
body that very day so as to fulfill the prescribed ceremonial of the
Hindoo religion. The mayor hesitated, telegraphed to the prefecture to
demand instructions, at the same time sending word that a failure to
reply would be considered by him tantamount to a consent. As he had
received no reply at 9 o'clock that evening, he decided, in view of the
infectious character of the disease of which the East Indian had died,
that the cremation of the body should take place that very night,
beneath the cliff, on the beach, at ebb tide.

The mayor is being criticized now for this decision, though he acted as
an intelligent, liberal and determined man, and was upheld and advised
by the three physicians who had watched the case and reported the death.

They were dancing at the Casino that evening. It was an early autumn
evening, rather chilly. A pretty strong wind was blowing from the ocean,
although as yet there was no sea on, and swift, light, ragged clouds
were driving across the sky. They came from the edge of the horizon,
looking dark against the background of the sky, but as they approached
the moon they grew whiter and passed hurriedly across her face, veiling
it for a few seconds without completely hiding it.

The tall straight cliffs that inclose the rounded beach of Etretat and
terminate in two celebrated arches, called "the Gates," lay in shadow,
and made two great black patches in the softly lighted landscape.

It had rained all day.

The Casino orchestra was playing waltzes, polkas and quadrilles. A rumor
was presently circulated among the groups of dancers. It was said that
an East Indian prince had just died at the Hotel des Bains