“She soon found herself in trouble, and was tortured with fear and shame.  Wishing to conceal her misfortune, she bound her body tightly with a corset of her own invention, made of boards and cord.  The more she developed, the more she bound herself with this instrument of torture, suffering martyrdom, but brave in her sorrow, not allowing anyone to see, or suspect, anything.  She maimed the little unborn being, cramping it with that frightful corset, and made a monster of it.  Its head was squeezed and elongated to a point, and its large eyes seemed popping out of its head.  Its limbs, exaggeratedly long, and twisted like the stalk of a vine, terminated in fingers like the claws of a spider.  Its trunk was tiny, and round as a nut.

“The child was born in an open field, and when the weeders saw it, they fled away, screaming, and the report spread that she had given birth to a demon.  From that time on, she was called ‘the Devil.’

“She was driven from the farm, and lived on charity, under a cloud.  She brought up the monster, whom she hated with a savage hatred, and would have strangled, perhaps, if the priest had not threatened her with arrest.

“One day some travelling showmen heard about the frightful creature, and asked to see it, so that if it pleased them they might take it away.  They were pleased, and counted out five hundred francs to the mother.  At first, she had refused to let them see the little animal, as she was ashamed; but when she discovered it had a money value, and that these people were anxious to get it, she began to haggle with them, raising her price with all a peasant’s persistence.

“She made them draw up a paper, in which they promised to pay her four hundred francs a year besides, as though they had taken this deformity into their employ.

“Incited by the greed of gain, she continued to produce these phenomena, so as to have an assured income like a bourgeoise.

“Some of them were long, some short, some like crabs-all bodies-others like lizards.  Several died, and she was heartbroken.

“The law tried to interfere, but as they had no proof they let her continue to produce her freaks.

“She has at this moment eleven alive, and they bring in, on an average, counting good and bad years, from five to six thousand francs a year.  One, alone, is not placed, the one she was unwilling to show us.  But she will not keep it long, for she is known to all the showmen in the world, who come from time to time to see if she has anything new.

“She even gets bids from them when the monster is valuable.”

My friend was silent.  A profound disgust stirred my heart, and a feeling of rage, of regret, to think that I had not strangled this brute when I had the opportunity.

I had forgotten this story, when I saw on the beach of a fashionable resort the other day, an elegant, charming, dainty woman, surrounded by men who paid her respect as well as admiration.