A Mummer's Tale

y the rules of moral responsibility, he now experienced a sensation of painful regret, akin to remorse. Reflecting that he had caused the death of this man, albeit

to him. They said, quoting some old religious orator: "When we abandon ourselves to irregularities of conduct, even to those regarded as least culpable in the opinio

ourselves to irregularities of conduct, even to those regarded as least culpable in the opinion of the world.... We perceive, from the most frightful examples...." These phrases, which only a little while ago had reverberated through his soul like a peal of thunder, he now heard in the snuffling and throaty voices of the professors and priests who had taught them to him, and he found them somewhat ridiculous. By a natural association of ideas he recalled a passage from

was giving out a horrible stench of paraffin. Thinking of the author of the passage relating to

ely evaporated, and he was unable to conceive how he could for a moment have b

ht: "Supposing he

What if he had taken a mere graze of the skin for a serious lesion of the brain and skull? Does a man retain his powers of judgment in the first moments of surprise and horror? A w

the wick, which was stil

s enough to

to Dr. Socrates, as to the origin of whi

like thirty-six ca

, had, like Chevalier, fired his revolver into his mouth, but had only succeeded in shattering his jaw; he remembered that at his club a well known sp

g he were

ng bandages, of giving first aid. Intending to re-examine the man lying in the front room, he raised the lamp, which was still emitting

the blas

seeing him already on his feet, perched on his long legs, bawling, clearing his throat, sneering, his desire for his recovery became less eager; he

uld he return to the Odéon? Would he stroll through its corridors displaying

zed the livid bleeding wound, the irregular outline of

, and he failed to understand how he

ike the impression caused by too bright a light. It moved away from him, increasing in size against the black sky; it took

e housekeeper. Once on the boulevard, he recovered his equanimity. He felt most uncomfortable about the accident; he accepted the accomplished fact, but he cavilled at fate in respect of the circumstances. Sinc

imself at home? Couldn't he, if his determination was irrevocable, have carried it out discreetly, with proper pride?

time been Chevalier's mistress. He had asked her this, not because he wanted to know, for he had very little doubt of it, but in or

ier spoilt Félicie for him. Why did she take lovers of that type? Was she wanting in taste? Did she not exercise a certain selection? Did she behave like a woman of the town? Did she lack a certain sense of niceness which warns wo

of brandy. He sent her to watch the corpse. He instructed her to cover it with a sheet, and to hold herself at the disposal of the commissary and the doctor, who would come for the particulars. She replied, somewhat nettled, that she knew please God, what she had to do. She did indeed know. Madame Simonneau w

im. "When anyone has killed himself, you mu

They unfold themselves in an ordinary fashion, falling into place as a succession of petty facts, and eventually losing themselves in the everyday commonplace of life. His mind was distracted from the violent death of an unfortunate fellow-creature by the very circumstances o

to the industry of Madame Simonneau, who was always interested in matters of supply, the house exhaled a violent smell of carbolic and was blazing with the candles which she had lit. Madame

uddy complexion. He breathe

raversed the brain and finally fractured the left parietal bone, carrying away a portion

dle to Madame Simon

l probably be found in the garden. I should conjecture that the bullet

, thin man with a long grey moustache, seemed neither to

ell as the fingers of the right hand, which are stil

t a c

ly informed," rema

ert de Ligny, "and I thank you for the courteous manne

Madame Simonneau showing the way, ca

l was biting his nails

steady average of self-inflicted deaths. Out of a hundred suicides thirty are caused by

"Chevalier? Wait a minute! I have seen him; I saw him at a benefi

d outside the

hairdresser's shop is a clandestine betting agency. No later than last week a concierge in the Avenue du Roule was found hanging from a tree in the Bois de Boulogne. Now, working men, servants, and junior clerks who gamble do not need to take their own lives. They move t

r.' 'The sabre, the knife?' 'No, sir.' 'Ah, then, I see what you want. You are not fastidious. What you want is a duel in the prairie. I agree. We will replace the prairie by a five-storied house. You are permitted to

tening. He was following u

ari mutuel. Gambling never releases its victims; when it has despoiled them of every

ailed him, and snatched from him a sporting paper, which he spread out under the light of a gas-lamp, scanning its pages for certain names of hors

the dead, he might well be called upon to certify the suicide of his commissary of police, and he mad

e seized h

given a seat for the Opéra-Comique to

house, Ligny aske

ave you

d Madame Simonneau.

saw at the windows of the bedroom, through the muslin curtains, the light

"one might get a n

ted some neighbours of her own sex, and had ordered her wine

not press

ill howling ou

t on the boulevard strolled along quietly, without raising their heads. Although he knew that when cities are wrapped in night the moist atmosphere often reflects the lights, becoming tinged with this uniform glow, which shines without a flicker, he fancied that he was looking at the reflection of a vast fire. He accepte

ign Affairs was enamoured of Madame de Neuilles, an elderly lady with a lurid past, whom public rumour had raised to the status of adventuress and spy. He was wont, it was whispered, to try on her the speeches which he was to deliver in the Chamber. Ligny, who had formerly been to a certain small extent the lover of Madame de Neuilles, pictured to himself the statesman in his shirt reciting to his lady-love the following statement o