allured by the charm of their life. I often dined with
them, and frequently, when I returned home at night, I thought that I
would do as he had done, and get married, as I now found my empty house
very dull.

"They seemed very much in love with one another, and were never apart.

"Well, one evening Julien wrote and asked me to go to dinner, and I
naturally went.

"'My dear fellow,' he said, 'I must go out directly afterwards on
business, and I shall not be back until eleven o'clock, but I shall be
at eleven precisely, and I reckon you to keep Bertha company.'

"The young woman smiled.

"'It was my idea,' she said, 'to send for you.'

"I held out my hand to her.

"'You are as nice as ever,' I said, and I felt a long, friendly pressure
of my fingers, but I paid no attention to it; so we sat down to dinner,
and at eight o'clock Julien went out.

"As soon as he had gone, a kind of strange embarrassment immediately
seemed to arise between his wife and me. We had never been alone
together yet, and in spite of our daily increasing intimacy, this
_tete-a-tete_ placed us in a new position. At first I spoke vaguely of
those indifferent matters with which one fills up an embarrassing
silence, but she did not reply, and remained opposite to me with her
head down in an undecided manner, as if she were thinking over some
difficult subject, and as I was at a loss for commonplace ideas, I held
my tongue. It is surprising how hard it is at times to find anything to
say.

"And then, again, I felt in the air, I felt in the unseen, something
which is impossible for me to express, that mysterious premonition which
tells you beforehand of the secret intentions, be they good or evil, of
another person with respect to yourself.

"That painful silence lasted some time, and then Bertha said to me:

"'Will you kindly put a log on the fire, for it is going out.'

"So I opened the box where the wood was kept, which was placed just
where yours is, took out the largest log, and put it on the top of the
others, which were three-parts burnt, and then silence reigned in the
room again.

"In a few minutes the log was burning so brightly that it scorched our
faces, and the young woman raised her eyes to me--eyes that had a
strange look to me.

"'It is too hot now,' she said; 'let us go and sit on the sofa over
there.'

"So we went and sat on the sofa, and then she said suddenly, looking me
full in the face:

"'What should you do if a