look like that before."

"Well, you look no better youself. Any one would say, to see you, that you
had just risen from the grave."

Berta's father slowly arched his eyebrows, heaved a profound sigh, and
sinking into a chair, as if weighed down by the burden of existence, he
asked again:

"What is the matter?"

"The matter is," answered the nurse, "that the devil has got into this
house."

"It is possible," he answered; "and if you add that it is not an hour
since he left this room, you will not be far wrong."

"The Lord have mercy on us!" exclaimed the nurse: "the devil here!"

"Yes, Nurse Juana, the devil in person."

"And you saw him?"

"I saw him."

"What a horrible visitor!" exclaimed Juana, crossing herself.

"No," said Berta's father, "he is not horrible; he took the appearance of
a handsome young man who has all the air of a terrible rake."