“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 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!’