I made a movement with my hand as though it wanted to continue but could not.... I opened my mouth, closed my eyes and fell gently into Jarrett’s arms. “Quick! air!... A doctor.... Poor thing.... How pale she is! Take her hat off.... Loosen her corset.... She doesn’t wear one. Unfasten her dress....” I was terrified, but Félicie was called up in haste and my _petite dame_ would not allow any _déshabillage_. The doctor came back with a bottle of ether. Félicie seized the bottle. “Oh, no, doctor ... not ether! When madame is quite well the odor of ether will make her faint.” This was quite true and I thought, it was time to come to my senses again. The reporters were arriving and there were more than twenty of them, but Jarrett, who was very much affected, asked them to go to the Albemarle Hotel, where I was to put up. I saw each of the reporters take Jarrett aside, and when I asked him what the secret was of all these “asides” he answered phlegmatically: “I have made an appointment with them from one o’clock. There will be a fresh one every ten minutes.” I looked at him petrified with astonishment. He met my anxious gaze and said: “_Oh, oui, il était nécessaire!_” On arriving at the Albemarle Hotel I felt tired and nervous, and wanted to be left quite alone. I hurried away at once to my room in the suite that had been engaged for me and fastened the doors. There was neither lock nor bolt on one of them, but I pushed a piece of furniture against it and then refused emphatically to open it. There were about fifty people waiting in the drawing-room, but I had that feeling of awful weariness which makes one ready to go to the most violent extremes for the sake of an hour’s repose. I wanted to lie down on the rug, cross my arms, throw my head back, and close my eyes. I did not want to talk any more, and I did not want to have to smile or look at anyone. I threw myself down on the floor and was deaf to the knocks on my door, and to Jarrett’s supplications. I did not want to argue the matter, so I did not utter a word. I heard the murmur of grumbling voices and Jarrett’s words tactfully persuading the visitors to stay. I heard the rustle of paper being pushed under the door and Mme. Guérard whispering to Jarrett, who was furious. “You don’t know her, M. Jarrett,” I heard her say: “if she thought you were forcing the door open, against which she has pushed the furniture, she would jump out of the window!” Then I heard Félicie talking to a French lady who was insisting on seeing me. “It is quite impossible,” she was saying. “Madame would be quite hysterical. She needs an hour’s rest and everyone must wait!” For some little time I could hear a confused murmur which seemed to get farther away, and then I fell into a delicious sleep, laughing to myself as I went off, for my good temper returned as I pictured the angry, nonplused expression on the faces of my visitors.