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Speaker 1: The spasm by Gui the Mopossan. The hotel guests slowly

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entered the dining room and took their places. The waiters

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did not hurry themselves in order to keep the lake

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commers a chance and thus avoid the trouble of bringing

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in the dishes a second time. The old paters, the Bituet,

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whose season was almost over plans, gazed toward the door

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whenever it opened, to see what new faces might appear.

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This is the principal distraction of watering places. People look

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forward to the dinner hour in order to inspect each

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day's new arrivals, to find out who they are, what

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they do, and what they think. We always have a

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vague desire to meet pleasant people, to make agreeable acquaintances,

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perhaps to meet with a love adventure. In this life

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of elbowings, unknown strangers assume an extreme importance. Curiosity is aroused,

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sympathy is ready to exhibit itself, and sussibility is the

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order of day. We cherish antipathies for a week and

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friendships for a month. We see people with different eyes

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when we view them through the medium of acquaintanceship. At

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watering places, we discover in men suddenly, after an hour's

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shat in the evening after dinner under the trees in

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the park, where the healing spring bubbles up a high

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intelligence and astonishing merits. And a month afterward we have

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completely forgotten these new friends who are so fascinating when

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we first met them. Permanent and serious ties are also

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formed here, sooner than everywhere else. People see each other

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every day. They become acquainted very quickly, and their affection

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is tinged with the sweetness and unrestrained of long standing intimacies.

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We cherish in after years the dear and tender memories

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of those first hours of friendship, the memory of those

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first conversations in which a soul unveiled, of those first

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glances which interrogate and respond to questions and secret thoughts

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which as not yet uttered, the memory of the first

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cordial confidence, the memory of the delightful sensation of opening

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our hearts to those who seemed to open theirs to

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us in return. And the melancholy of watering places. The

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monotony of days that are all alike proves hourly and

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incentive to this hard expansion. While this evening, as on

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every other evening, were awaited, the appearance of strange faces

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only two appeared, but they were very remarkable, a man

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and a woman, father and daughter. They immediately reminded me

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of some Edgar Poe's characters, and yet there was about

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them a charm, the charm associated with misfortune. I looked

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upon them as the victims of fate. The man was

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very tall and thin, rather stooped, with perfectly white hair,

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too white for his compreably youthful physiognomy. And there was

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in his bearing and his person that ausrity peculiar to Protestants.

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The daughter, who was probably twenty four twenty five, was

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more in stature, and was also very thin, very pale,

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and had the air of one who was worn out

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with utter lassitude. We meet people like this from time

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to time, who seemed too weak for the tasks and

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the need of daily life, too weak to move about,

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to walk, to do all that we do every day.

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She was surrounded pretty, with a transparent, spiritual beauty, and

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she ate with extreme slowness, as if she were almost

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incapable of moving her arms. It must have been, she assuredly,

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who had come to take the waters. They sat facing

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me on the opposite side of the table, and I

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at once noticed that the father had a very singular

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nervous twitching every time he wanted to reach an object.

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His und described a sort of zig zag before succeeded

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in reaching what it was in search of. And after

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a little while this movement annoyed me so that I

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turned aside my head in order not to see it.

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I noticed too that the young girl during me e

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wore a glove on her left hand. After dinner, I

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went for a stroll in the park of the bathing establishment.

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This led toward the little over in a station of Chatelguyon,

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hidden in a garge at the foot of the high mountain,

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from which flowed so many bowling springs, arising from the

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deep bed of extinct volcanoes. Over yonder above our heads,

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the domes of extinct craters lifted their ragged peaks above

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the rest in the long mountain chain. For Chatelguillon is

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situated at the entrance to the land of mountain domes.

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Beyond it stretches out the region of peaks, and farther

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on again the region of precipitous summits. The Pewted Dome

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is the highest of the domes. The peak of Sansy

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is the loftiest of the peaks, and Cantal is the

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most precipitous of these mountain heights. It was a very

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warm evening, and I was walking up and down a

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shady path, listening to the opening strains of the casino band,

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which was laying on an elevation overlooking the park, and

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I saw the father and the daughter advancing slowly in

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my direction. I bowed as one bows to one's hotel

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companions at watering place, and the man, coming suddenly to

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a halt, said to me, could you not, monsieur, tell

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us of a nice walk to take? Short, pretty and

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not steep, and pardon my tribling you. I offered to

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show them the way toward the valley through which the

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little river flowed, a deep valley forming a garge between

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two tall, craggy woody slopes. They gladly accepted my offer,

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and we talked naturally about the virtue of the waters. Oh,

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he said, my daughter is a slinged malady, the seat

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of which is unknown. She suffers for arom au comprincipled

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nervous attacks. At one time the doctors think she has

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an attack of heart disease. At another time they imagine

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it is some affection of the liver, And at another

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they did declare it to be a disease of the spine.

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To day, this broad in melody that assumes a thousand

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forms and a thousand modes of attack is attributed to

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the stomach, which is the great cauldron and regulator of

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the body. This is why we have come here. For

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my part, I am rather inclined to think it is

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the nerves. In any case, it is very sad. Immediately

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the remembrance of the violent, spasmodic movement of his hand

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came back to my mind, and I asked him, but

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is this not the result of our redity? Are not

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your own nerves somewhat affected? He replied calmly, mine, Oh no,

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My nerves have always been very steady. Then suddenly, after

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a pause, he went on, ah, you are alluding to

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the jerky movement on my hand every time I try

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to reach for anything. This arises from a terrible experience

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which I had just imagine. This daughter of mine was

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actually buried alive. I could only after, Ah, so great

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were my astonishment and emotion, he continued, Here is a sorry.

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It is simple. She yet had been subject for a

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time to serious attacks of the heart, who believed that

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she had diseased of the organ and were prepared for

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the worst. One day, she was carried into the house

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called lifeless dead. She had fallen down unconscious in the garden.

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The doctor certified that life was extinct. I watched by

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her side for a day and two nights. I laid

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her with my own hands in the coffin, which I

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accompanied to the cemetery where she was deposited in the

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family vault. It is situated in the very heart of Lorraine.

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I wished to have her interred with her jewels, bracelet, necklaces, rings,

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all presents which she had received from me, and wearing

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her first all dress. You may easily imagine my state

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of mind when I re entered our home. She was

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the only one I had, for my wife had been

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dead for many years. I found my way to my

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own apartment in a half distracted condition, after exhausted and

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sunk into my easy chair, without the capacity to think

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or the strength to move. I was nothing better now

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than a suffering vibrating machine, a human being who had,

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as it were, been flayed alive. My soul was like

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an open wound, my old Valette Prosper, who had assisted

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me in placing Juliette in her coffin and aid me

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in preparing her for the last sleep, entered the room

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noiselessly and asked, does Monsieur want anything? I merely shook

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my head in reply. Monsieur is wrong, he urged, he

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will injure his health. Would Monsieur like me to put

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him to bed? I answered, now let me alone, and

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he left the room. I know not how many hours

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slid away? Oh what a night, What a night? He

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was called. My fire had died out in the huge grate,

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and the wind, the winter wind, an icy wind, a

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winter hurricane, blew with a regular sinister noise against the windows.

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How many hours slipped away? There I was, without sleeping, powerless, crushed,

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my eyes wide open, my legs stretched out, my body limp, inanimate,

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and my mind torpid with despair. Suddenly the great doorbell,

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the great bell of the Vestpule, rang out. I started

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so that my chair cracked under me. The solemn, ponderous

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sound vibrated through the empty country house as through a voult.

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I turned round to see what the hour was. By

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the clock, it was just two in the morning. Who

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could be coming at such an hour? And abruptly the

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bell again rang twice. The servants, without doubt, were afraid

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to get up. I took a wax candle and ascended

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the stairs. I was on the point of asking who

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is there? Then I felt ashamed of my weakness, and

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I slowly drew back the heavy bolts. My heart was

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throbbing wildly. I was frightened. I opened the door briskly,

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and in the darkness I distinguished a white figure standing

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erect something that resembled apparition. I recoiled, petrified with horror, faltering,

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who who who are you? A voice replied, it is

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I father, It was my daughter. I really thought I

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must be mad, and retreated backward before this advancing specter.

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I kept moving away, making a sign with my hands,

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as if to try the phantom away that gesture which

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you have noticed, the gesture which has remained with me

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ever since. Do not be afraid, Papa said the apparition.

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I was not dead. Somebody tried to steal my rings

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and cut one of my fingers. The blood began to flow,

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and that restored me to life. And in fact I

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could see that hands was covered with blood. I fell

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on my knees, choking with sobs, and we were rattling

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in my throat. Then, when I had somewhat collected my thoughts,

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though I was still so bewildered that I scarcely realized

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the awesome happiness, said that befallen me. I made her

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go up to my room and sit down in my

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easy chair. Then I rang exactly for prosper to get

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him to rekindle the fire, and to bring some wine,

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and to summon assistance. The man entered start that my

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daughter opened his mouth with a gasp of alarm and stupefaction,

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and then fell back dead. It was he who had

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opened the vault, who had mutilated and then abandoned my daughter,

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for he could not effaced the traces of the theft.

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He had not even taken the trouble to put pat

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the coffin into this place, feeling sure besides that he

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would not be suspected by me, as had trusted him absolutely.

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You see, monsieur, that we are very unfortunate people. He

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was silent the night had fallen, casting his shadows over

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the desolate, mournful veil, and a sort of mysterious fear

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possessed me at finding myself by the side of those

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strange beings of his young girl who had come back

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from the tomb, and his father with his uncanny spasms.

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I found it impossible to make any comments on this

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dreadful story. I only murmured, what a horrible thing. Then,

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after minut in silence, I added, let us go in doors.

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I think it's growing cold, and we made our way

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back to the hotel end of the spasm.