“No, it is best that I should not speak of that any more, it breaks my heart.”

Then, as if to change the current of his thoughts he rose.

“Would you like to go in?” he said.

“Yes, I think so.”

And he preceded me into the house.  The downstairs rooms were enormous, bare and mournful, and had a deserted look.  Plates and glasses were scattered on the tables, left there by the dark-skinned servants who wandered incessantly about this spacious dwelling.

Two rifles were banging from two nails, on the wall; and in the corners of the rooms were spades, fishing poles, dried palm leaves, every imaginable thing set down at random when people came home in the evening and ready to hand when they went out at any time, or went to work.

My host smiled as he said: 

“This is the dwelling, or rather the kennel, of an exile, but my own room is cleaner.  Let us go there.”

As I entered I thought I was in a second-hand store, it was so full of things of all descriptions, strange things of various kinds that one felt must be souvenirs.  On the walls were two pretty paintings by well-known artists, draperies, weapons, swords and pistols, and exactly in the middle, on the principal panel, a square of white satin in a gold frame.

Somewhat surprised, I approached to look at it, and perceived a hairpin fastened in the centre of the glossy satin.  My host placed his hand on my shoulder.

“That,” said he, “is the only thing that I look at here, and the only thing that I have seen for ten years.  M. Prudhomme said:  ’This sword is the most memorable day of my life.’  I can say:  ’This hairpin is all my life.’”

I sought for some commonplace remark, and ended by saying: 

“You have suffered on account of some woman?”

He replied abruptly: 

“Say, rather, that I am suffering like a wretch.”

“But come out on my balcony.  A name rose to my lips just now which I dared not utter; for if you had said ‘Dead’ as you did of Sophie Astier, I should have fired a bullet into my brain, this very day.”

We had gone out on the wide balcony from whence we could see two gulfs, one to the right and the other to the left, enclosed by high gray mountains.  It was just twilight and the reflection of the sunset still lingered in the sky.

He continued: 

“Is Jeanne de Limours still alive?”

His eyes were fastened on mine and were full of a trembling anxiety.  I smiled.

“Parbleu—­she is prettier than ever.”

“Do you know her?”

“Yes.”

He hesitated and then said: 

“Very well?”

“No.”

He took my hand.

“Tell me about her,” he said.

“Why, I have nothing to tell.  She is one of the most charming women, or, rather, girls, and the most admired in Paris.  She leads a delightful existence and lives like a princess, that is all.”