difference."

Then the man murmured between his teeth:

" If you -were a woman, — well, you would go this very evening to Mother Hurlot. She has herbs."

But the woman began to weep. And in her tears she groaned:

" Don't say that; don't say that! That brings bad luck."

The man pounded the table, and cried:

' ' Must we, then, die, my God ! ' '

The bad luck came. Four days later the woman had a miscarriage ... a miscarriage ? . . . and died in the frightful pains of peritonitis.

And, when the man had finished his story, he said to me :

" So now here I am, all alone. No wife, no child, nothing. I really thought of revenging my- self ; yes, for a long time I thought of killing those three children that were playing on the lawn, although I am not wicked, I assure you. But that woman's three children, I swear to you, I could have strangled with joy, with reaPjoy! Oh! yes. But then, I did not dare. What do you expect? We are afraid; we are cowards; we have courage only to suf