“I thought for a few moments, and then I said to myself:  ’A nervous attack, vapors, nonsense; I am too tired.’  And so I replied:  ’As Doctor Simeon is not at all well, he must beg Madame Lelievre to be kind enough to call in his colleague, Monsieur Bonnet.’  I put the note into an envelope, and went to sleep again, but about half an hour later the street bell rang again, and Jean came to me and said:  ’There is somebody downstairs; I do not quite know whether it is a man or a woman, as the individual is so wrapped up, who wishes to speak to you immediately.  He says it is a matter of life and death for two people.  Whereupon, I sat up in bed and told him to show the person in.

“A kind of black phantom appeared, 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.’