After dinner, in the large drawing-room, everybody played lotto, without enjoyment, while the wind whistled madly around the house.  Then they tried telling stories like those they read in books, but no one was able to invent anything amusing.  The hunters told tales of wonderful shots and of the butchery of rabbits; and the women racked their brains for ideas without revealing the imagination of Scheherezade.  They were about to give up this diversion when a young woman, who was idly caressing the hand of an old maiden aunt, noticed a little ring made of blond hair, which she had often seen, without paying any attention to it.

She fingered it gently and asked, “Auntie, what is this ring?  It looks as if it were made from the hair of a child.”

The old lady blushed, grew pale, then answered in a trembling voice:  “It is sad, so sad that I never wish to speak of it.  All the unhappiness of my life comes from that.  I was very young then, and the memory has remained so painful that I weep every time I think of it.”

Immediately everybody wished to know the story, but the old lady refused to tell it.  Finally, after they had coaxed her for a long time, she yielded.  Here is the story: 

“You have often heard me speak of the Santeze family, now extinct.  I knew the last three male members of this family.  They all died in the same manner; this hair belongs to the last one.  He was thirteen when he killed himself for me.  That seems strange to you, doesn’t it?

“Oh! it was a strange family—­mad, if you will, but a charming madness, the madness of love.  From father to son, all had violent passions which filled their whole being, which impelled them to do wild things, drove them to frantic enthusiasm, even to crime.  This was born in them, just as burning devotion is in certain souls.  Trappers have not the same nature as minions of the drawing-room.  There was a saying:  ’As passionate as a Santeze.’  This could be noticed by looking at them.  They all had wavy hair, falling over their brows, curly beards and large eyes whose glance pierced and moved one, though one could not say why.

“The grandfather of the owner of this hair, of whom it is the last souvenir, after many adventures, duels and elopements, at about sixty-five fell madly in love with his farmer’s daughter.  I knew them both.  She was blond, pale, distinguished-looking, with a slow manner of talking, a quiet voice and a look so gentle that one might have taken her for a Madonna.  The old nobleman took her to his home and was soon so captivated with her that he could not live without her for a minute.  His daughter and daughter-in-law, who lived in the chateau, found this perfectly natural, love was such a tradition in the family.  Nothing in regard to a passion surprised them, and if one spoke before them of parted lovers, even of vengeance after treachery, both said in the same sad tone:  ‘Oh, how he must have suffered to come to that point!’ That was all.  They grew sad over tragedies of love, but never indignant, even when they were criminal.