on the adventure as both comic and deplorable, and my position as
ridiculous, fain to believe that I had lost my head.

"I asked myself what I ought to do. I debated whether I ought not
to take my leave of the place and almost immediately my

resolution was formed.
"Somewhat sad and perplexed, I wandered about until dinner time,

and entered the farmhouse just when the soup had been served up.
"I sat down at the table, as usual. Miss Harriet was there,

munching away solemnly, without speaking to anyone, without even
lifting her eyes. She wore, however, her usual expression, both

of countenance and manner.
"I waited, patiently, till the meal had been finished. Then,

turning toward the landlady, I said: 'Madame Lecacheur, it will
not be long now before I shall have to take my leave of you.'

"The good woman, at once surprised and troubled, replied in a
quivering voice: 'My dear sir, what is it I have just heard you

say? Are you going to leave us, after I have become so much
accustomed to you?'

"I looked at Miss Harriet from the corner of my eye. Her
countenance did not change in the least; but the under-servant

came toward me with eyes wide open. She was a fat girl, of about
eighteen years of age, rosy, fresh, strong as a horse, yet

possessing a rare attribute in one in her position--she was very
neat and clean. I had kissed her at odd times, in out of the way

corners, in the manner of a mountain guide, nothing more.
"The dinner being over, I went to smoke my pipe under the

apple-trees, walking up and down at my ease, from one end of the
court to the other. All the reflections which I had made during

the day, the strange discovery of the morning, that grotesque and
passionate attachment for me, the recollections which that

revelation had suddenly called up, recollections at once charming
and perplexing, perhaps, also, that look which the servant had

cast on me at the announcement of my departure--all these things,
mixed up and combined, put me now in an excited bodily state,

with the tickling sensation of kisses on my lips, and in my veins
something which urged me on to commit some folly.

"Night having come on, casting its dark shadows under the trees,
I descried Celeste, who had gone to shut the hen-coops, at the

other end of the inclosure. I darted toward her, running so
noiselessly that she heard nothing, and as she got up from

closing the small traps by which the chickens went in and out, I
clasped her in my arms and rained on her coarse, fat face a

shower of kisses. She made a struggle, laughing all the same, as
she was accustomed to do in such circumstances. What made me

suddenly loose my grip of her? Why did I at once experience a
shock? What was it that I heard behind me?

"It was Miss Harriet who had come upon us, who had seen us, and
who stood in front of us, as motionless as a specter. Then she

disappeared in the darkness.
"I was ashamed, embarrassed, more annoyed at having been

surprised by her than if she had caught me committing some
criminal act.

"I slept badly that night; I was worried and haunted by sad
thoughts. I seemed to hear loud weeping; but in this I was no

doubt deceived. Moreover, I thought several times that I heard
some one walking up and down in the house, and that some one

opened my door from the outside.
"Toward morning, I was overcome by fatigue, and sleep seized on

me. I got up late and did not go downstairs until breakfast time,
being still in a bewildered state, not knowing what kind of face

to put on.
"No one had seen Miss Harriet. We waited for her at table, but

she did not appear. At length, Mother Lecacheur went to her room.
The English-woman had gone out. She must have set out at break of

day, as she was wont to do, in order to see the sun rise.
"Nobody seemed astonished at this and we began to eat in silence.

"The weather was hot, very hot, one of those still sultry days
when not a leaf stirs. The table had been placed out of doors,

under an apple-tree; and from time to time Sapeur had gone to the
cellar to draw a jug of cider, everybody was so thirsty. Celeste

brought the dishes from the kitchen, a ragout of mutton with
potatoes, a cold rabbit, and a salad. Afterward she placed before

us a dish of strawberries, the first of the season.
"As I wanted to wash and freshen these, I begged the servant to

go and bring a pitcher of cold water."
"In about five minutes she returned, declaring that the well was

dry. She had lowered the pitcher to the full extent of the cord,
and had touched the bottom, but on drawing the pitcher up again,

it was empty. Mother Lecacheur, anxious to examine the thing for
herself, went and looked down the hole. She returned announcing

that one could see clearly something in the well, something
altogether unusual. But this, no doubt, was pottles of straw,

which, out of spite, had been cast down it by a neighbor.
"I wished also to look down the well, hoping to clear up the

mystery, and perched myself close to its brink. I perceived,
indistinctly, a white object. What could it be? I then conceived

the idea of lowering a lantern at the end of a cord. When I did
so, the yellow flame danced on the layers of stone and gradually

became clearer. All four of us were leaning over the opening,
Sapeur and Celeste having now joined us. The lantern rested on a

black and white, indistinct mass, singular, incomprehensible.
Sapeur exclaimed:

" 'It is a horse. I see the hoofs. It must have escaped from the
meadow, during the night, and fallen in headlong.'

"But, suddenly, a cold shiver attacked my spine, I first
recognized a foot, then a clothed limb; the body was entire, but

the other limb had disappeared under the water.
"I groaned and trembled so violently that the light of the lamp

danced hither and thither over the object, discovering a slipper.
" 'It is a woman! who--who--can it be? It is Miss Harriet.'

"Sapeur alone did not manifesthorror. He had witnessed many such
scenes in Africa.

"Mother Lecacheur and Celeste began to scream and to shriek, and
ran away.

"But it was necessary to recover the corpse of the dead. I
attached the boy securely by the loins to the end of the

pulley-rope; then I lowered him slowly, and watched him disappear
in the darkness. In the one hand he had a lantern, and held on to

the rope with the other. Soon I recognized his voice, which
seemed to come from the center of the earth, crying:

" 'Stop.'
"I then saw him fish something out of the water. It was the other

limb. He bound the two feet together, and shouted anew:
" 'Haul up.'

"I commenced to wind him up, but I felt my arms strain, my
muscles twitch, and was in terror lest I should let the boy fall

to the bottom. When his head appeared over the brink, I asked:
" 'What is it?' as though I only expected that he would tell me

what he had discovered at the bottom.
"We both got on to the stone slab at the edge of the well, and,

face to face, hoisted the body.
"Mother Lecacheur and Celeste watched us from a distance,

concealed behind the wall of the house. When they saw, issuing
from the well, the black slippers and white stockings of the

drowned person, they disappeared.
"Sapeur seized the ankles of the poor chaste woman, and we drew

it up, inclined, as it was, in the most immodest posture. The
head was in a shocking state, bruised and black; and the long,

gray hair, hanging down, was tangled and disordered.
" 'In the name of all that is holy, how lean she is!' exclaimed