greatest care the place occupied by it in the chest, asking to have some
of the demonstrations repeated two or three times, and when he went out,
questioning some of the young men who were following the medical courses,
about the susceptibility of the organ, which cannot receive ever so
slight a blow without death ensuing from that blow: all this with so
perfect an indifference and calmness that no one about him conceived any
suspicion.

Another day, A. S., one of his friends, came into his room. Sand, who
had heard him coming up, was standing by the table, with a paper-knife in
his hand, waiting for him; directly the visitor came in, Sand flung
himself upon him, struck him lightly on the forehead; and then, as he put
up his hands to ward off the blow, struck him rather more violently in
the chest; then, satisfied with this experiment, said:--

"You see, when you want to kill a man, that is the way to do it; you
threaten the face, he puts up his hands, and while he does so you thrust
a dagger into his heart."

The two young men laughed heartily over this murderous demonstration, and
A. S. related it that evening at the wine-shop as one of the
peculiarities of character that were common in his friend. After the
event, the pantomime explained itself.

The month of March arrived. Sand became day by day calmer, more
affectionate, and kinder; it might be thought that in the moment of
leaving his friends for ever he wished to leave them an ineffaceable
remembrance of him. At last he announced that on account of several
family affairs he was about to undertake a little journey, and set about
all his preparations with his usual care, but with a serenity never