that place in the wall.... Under the silken hangings there proved to be
a secret door. And her wedding-ring had disappeared from her hand. This
ring was of an unusual shape. Upon it seven tiny golden stars alternated
with seven tiny silver stars; it was an ancient family heirloom. Her
husband asked her what had become of her ring; she could make no reply.
Her husband thought that she had dropped it somewhere, hunted everywhere
for it, but nowhere could he find it. Gloom descended upon him, he
decided to return home as speedily as possible, and as soon as the
doctor permitted they quitted the capital.... But imagine! On the very
day of their departure they suddenly encountered, on the street, a
litter.... In that litter lay a man who had just been killed, with a
cleft skull---and just imagine! that man was that same dreadful
nocturnal visitor with the wicked eyes.... He had been killed over a
game of cards!

"Then my friend went away to the country, and became a mother for the
first time ... and lived several years with her husband. He never
learned anything about that matter, and what could she say? She herself
knew nothing. But her former happiness had vanished. Darkness had
invaded their life--and that darkness was never dispelled.... They had
no other children either before or after ... but that son...."

My mother began to tremble all over, and covered her face with her
hands.

"But tell me now," she went on, with redoubled force, "whether my friend
was in any way to blame? With what could she reproach herself? She was
punished, but had not she the right to declare, in the presence of God
himself, that the punishment which overtook her was unjust? Then why can
the past present itself to her, after the lapse of so many years, in so