mouthful. All night I kept awake, and though I took several glasses of
strong waters I could obtain no rest.

At nine o'clock the next morning I knocked at the Charpillon's door, and
the old aunt came and held it half open as before. She forbade me to
enter, saying that her niece was still delirious, continually calling on
me in her transports, and that the doctor had declared that if the
disease continued its course she had not twenty-four hours to live. "The
fright you gave her has arrested her periods; she is in a terrible
state."

"O, fatal hairdresser!" I exclaimed.

"That was a mere youthful folly; you should have pretended not to have
seen anything."

"You think that possible, you old witch, do you? Do not let her lack for
anything; take that."

With these words I gave her a bank note for ten guineas and went away,
like the fool I was. On my way back I met Goudar, who was quite
frightened at my aspect. I begged him to go and see how the Charpillon
really was, and then to come and pass the rest of the day with me. An
hour after he came back and said he had found them all in tears and that
the girl was in extremis.

"Did you see her?"

"No, they said she could see no one."