the water which should have been applied
to that poll. I said to him:

"Verily, you look to be more than that age. Of a certainty you must have
experienced some great disappointment."

He replied:

"I tell you that I have not. I am old because I never take air. There is
nothing that vitiates the life of a man more than the atmosphere of a
cafe."

I could not believe him.

"You must surely have been married as well? One could not get as
bald-headed as you are without having been much in love."

He shook his head, sending down his back little white things which fell
from the end of his locks:

"No, I have always been virtuous."

And raising his eyes towards the luster, which beat down on our heads, he
said:

"If I am bald-headed, it is the fault of the gas. It is the enemy of
hair. Waiter, a 'bock.' You must be thirsty also?"

"No, thank you. But you certainly interest me. Since when did you have
your first discouragement? Your life is not normal, it is not natural.
There is something under it all."

"Yes, and it dates from my infancy. I received a heavy blow when I was
very young, and that turned my life into darkness, which will last to the
end."

"How did it come about?"

"You wish to know about it? Well, then, listen. You recall, of course,
the castle in which I was brought up, seeing that you used to visit it
for five or six months during the vacations? You remember that large,
gray building, in the middle of a great park, and the long avenues of
oaks, which opened towards the four cardinal points! You remember my
father and mother, both of whom were ceremonious, solemn and severe.

"I worshiped my mother; I was suspicious of my father; but I respected
both, accustomed always as I was to see everyone bow before them. They
were in the country, Monsieur le Comte and Madame la Comtesse; while our
neighbors, the Tannemares', the Ravelets', the Brennevilles', showed the
utmost consideration for my parents.

"I was then thirteen years old. I was happy, satisfied with everything,
as one is at that age, full of joy and vivacity.

"Now towards the end of September, a few days before my entering college,
while I was enjoying myself in the mazes of the park, climbing the trees
and swinging on the branches, I descried in crossing an avenue, my father
and mother, who were walking along.

"I recall the thing as though it were yesterday. It was a very stormy
day. The whole line of trees bent under the pressur