was hanging
onto the floor, and wet napkins, with which they had bathed the young
man's temples, were lying on the floor, by the side of a wash-hand basin
and a glass, while a strong smell of vinegar pervaded the room."

"The dead man's body was lying at full length in the middle of the room,
and I went up to it, looked at it, and touched it. I opened the eyes,
and felt the hands, and then, turning to the two women, who were shaking
as if they were frozen, I said to them: 'Help me to carry him onto the
bed.' When we had laid him gently onto it, I listened to his heart, and
put a looking-glass to his lips, and then said: 'It is all over; let us
make haste and dress him.' It was a terrible sight!

"I took his limbs one by one, as if they had belonged to some enormous
doll, and held them out to the clothes which the women brought, and they
put on his socks, drawers, trousers, waistcoat, and lastly the coat, but
it was a difficult matter to get the arms into the sleeves.

"When it came to buttoning his boots, the two women knelt down, while I
held the light, but as his feet were rather swollen, it was very
difficult, and as they could not find a button-hook, they had to use
their hairpins. When the terrible toilet was over, I looked at our work,
and said: 'You ought to arrange his hair a little.' The girl went and
brought her mistress's large-toothed comb and brush, but as she was
trembling, and pulling out his long, matted hair in doing it, Madame
Lelievre took the comb out of her hand, and arranged his hair as if she
were caressing him. She parted it, brushed his beard, rolled his
moustachios gently round her fingers, as she had no doubt been in the
habit of doing, in the familiarities of their intrigue.

"Suddenly, however, letting go of his hair, she took her dead lover's
inert head in her hands, and looked for a long time in despair at the
dead face, which no longer could smile at her, and then, throwing
herself onto him, she took him into her arms and kissed him ardently.
Her kisses fell like blows onto his closed mouth and eyes, onto his
forehead and temples, and then, putting her lips to his ear, as if he
could still hear her, and as if she were about to whisper something to
him, to make their embraces still more ardent, she said several times,
in a heartrending voice: 'Adieu, my darling!'

"Just then the clock struck twelve, and I started up. 'Twelve o'clock!'
I exclaimed. 'That is the time when the club closes