“Having fallen madly in love with a young girl, he had married her, but after a year of more than earthly happiness she died suddenly of an affection of the heart.  He left his country home on the very day of her burial and came to his town house in Rouen, where he lived, alone and unhappy, so sad and wretched that he thought constantly of suicide.

“‘Since I have found you again in this manner,’ he said, ’I will ask you to render me an important service.  It is to go and get me out of the desk in my bedroom—­our bedroom—­some papers of which I have urgent need.  I cannot send a servant or a business clerk, as discretion and absolute silence are necessary.  As for myself, nothing on earth would induce me to reenter that house.  I will give you the key of the room, which I myself locked on leaving, and the key of my desk, also a few words for my gardener, telling him to open the chateau for you.  But come and breakfast with me tomorrow and we will arrange all that.’

“I promised to do him the slight favor he asked.  It was, for that matter, only a ride which I could make in an hour on horseback, his property being but a few miles distant from Rouen.

“At ten o’clock the following day I breakfasted, tete-a-tete, with my friend, but he scarcely spoke.

“He begged me to pardon him; the thought of the visit I was about to make to that room, the scene of his dead happiness, overcame him, he said.  He, indeed, seemed singularly agitated and preoccupied, as though undergoing some mysterious mental struggle.

“At length he explained to me exactly what I had to do.  It was very simple.  I must take two packages of letters and a roll of papers from the first right-hand drawer of the desk, of which I had the key.  He added: 

“‘I need not beg you to refrain from glancing at them.’

“I was wounded at that remark and told him so somewhat sharply.  He stammered: 

“‘Forgive me, I suffer so,’ and tears came to his eyes.

“At about one o’clock I took leave of him to accomplish my mission.

“’The weather was glorious, and I trotted across the fields, listening to the song of the larks and the rhythmical clang of my sword against my boot.  Then I entered the forest and walked my horse.  Branches of trees caressed my face as I passed, and now and then I caught a leaf with my teeth and chewed it, from sheer gladness of heart at being alive and vigorous on such a radiant day.

“As I approached the chateau I took from my pocket the letter I had for the gardener, and was astonished at finding it sealed.  I was so irritated that I was about to turn back without having fulfilled my promise, but reflected that I should thereby display undue susceptibility.  My friend in his troubled condition might easily have fastened the envelope without noticing that he did so.

“The manor looked as if it had been abandoned for twenty years.  The open gate was falling from its hinges, the walks were overgrown with grass and the flower beds were no longer distinguishable.