o lend them to you,
and, if he speaks to you about it, you will not understand him."

Then he woke her up, and I took out a pocketbook and said: "Here is what
you asked me for this morning, my dear cousin." But she was so
surprised, that I did not venture to persist; nevertheless, I tried to
recall the circumstance to her, but she denied it vigorously, thought
that I was making fun of her, and in the end, very nearly lost her
temper.

* * * * *

There! I have just come back, and I have not been able to eat any lunch,
for this experiment has altogether upset me.

_July 19._ Many people to whom I have told the adventure, have laughed
at me. I no longer know what to think. The wise man says: Perhaps?

_July 21._ I dined at Bougival, and then I spent the evening at a
boatmen's ball. Decidedly everything depends on place and surroundings.
It would be the height of folly to believe in the supernatural on the
_ile de la Grenouilliere_[15] ... but on the top of Mont
Saint-Michel?... and in India? We are terribly under the influence of
our surroundings. I shall return home next week.

_July 30._ I came back to my own house yesterday. Everything is going on
well.

_August 2._ Nothing new. It is splendid weather, and I spent my days in
watching the Seine flow past.

_August 4._ Quarrels among my servants. They declare that the glasses
are broken in the cupboards at night. The footman accuses the cook, who
accuses the needle woman, who accuses the other two. Who is the culprit?
A clever person, to be able to tell.

_August 6._ This time, I am not mad. I have seen ... I have seen ... I
have seen!... I can doubt no longer ... I have seen it!...

I was walking at two o'clock among my rose trees, in the full sunlight
... in the walk bordered by autumn roses which are beginning to fall. As
I stopped to look at a _Geant de Bataille_, which had three splendid
blooms, I distinctly saw the stalk of one of the roses bend, close to
me, as if an invisible hand had bent it, and then break, as if that hand
had picked it! Then the flower raised itself, following the curve which
a hand would have described in carrying it towards a mouth, and it
remained suspended in the transparent air, all alone and motionless, a
terrible red spot, three yards from my eyes. In desperation I rushed at
it to take it! I found nothing; it had disappeared. Then I was seized
with furious rage against myself, for it is not allo