"The young engineer was very melancholy, although calm and apparently
master of his grief. He was already at work, even at that hour, laboring
with his assistants over some railroad plans or other. He was dressed in
deep mourning.

"He greeted me with a long and close embrace, without so much as sighing.
Then he gave some directions to his assistants about the work in hand, and
afterwards led me to his private office at the farther end of the house.
As we were on our way there he said, in a sorrowful tone and without
glancing at me:

"'I am very glad you have come. Several times I have found myself wishing
you were here. A very strange thing has happened to me. Only a friend such
as you are can hear of it without thinking me either a fool or crazy. I
want to get an opinion about it as calm and cool as science itself.

"'Sit down,' he went on when we had reached his office, 'and do not
imagine that I am going to afflict you with a description of the sorrow I
am suffering--a sorrow which will last as long as I live. Why should I?
You can easily picture it to yourself, little as you know of trouble. And
as for being comforted, I do not wish to be, either now, or later, or
ever! What I am going to speak to you about, with the requisite
deliberation, going back to the very beginning of the thing, is a horrible
and mysterious occurrence, which was an infernal omen of my calamity, and
which has distressed me in a frightful manner.'

"'Go on,' I replied, sitting down. The fact was, I almost repented having
entered the house as I saw the expression of abject fear on my friend's
face.