ppeared, who raised her veil as soon as Jean
had left the room. It was Madame Berthe Lelievre, quite a young woman,
who had been married for three years to a large shop-keeper in the town,
who was said to have married the prettiest girl in the neighborhood.

"She was terribly pale, her face was contracted like the faces of mad
people are, occasionally, and her hands trembled violently. Twice she
tried to speak, without being able to utter a sound, but at last she
stammered out: 'Come... quick... quick, Doctor... Come... my... my lover
has just died in my bedroom.' She stopped, half suffocated with emotion,
and then went on: 'My husband will... be coming home from the club very
soon.'

"I jumped out of bed, without even considering that I was only in my
night-shirt, and dressed myself in a few moments, and then I said: 'Did
you come a short time ago?' 'No,' she said, standing like a statue
petrified with horror. 'It was my servant... she knows.' And then, after
a short silence, she went on: 'I was there... by his side.' And she
uttered a sort of cry of horror, and after a fit of choking, which made
her gasp, she wept violently, and shook with spasmodic sobs for a minute
or two. Then her tears suddenly ceased, as if by an internal fire, and
with an air of tragic calmness, she said: 'Let us make haste.'

"I was ready, but I exclaimed: 'I quite forgot to order my carriage.' 'I
have one,' she said; 'it is his, which was waiting for him!' She wrapped
herself up, so as to completely conceal her face, and we started."

"When she was by my side in the darkness of the carriage, she suddenly
seized my hand, and crushing it in her delicate fingers, she said, with
a shaking voice, that proceeded from a distracted heart: 'Oh! If you
only knew, if you only knew what I am suffering! I loved him, I have
loved him distractedly, like a mad woman, for the last six months.' 'Is
anyone up in your house?' I asked. 'No, nobody except Rose, who knows
everything.'

"We stopped at the door, and evidently everybody was asleep, and we went
in without making any noise, by means of her latch-key, and walked
upstairs on tip-toe. The frightened servant was sitting on the top of
the stairs, with a lighted candle by her side, as she was afraid to stop
by the dead man, and I went into the room, which was turned upside down,
as if there had been a struggle in it. The bed, which was tumbled and
open, seemed to be waiting for somebody; one of the sheets