It was not until some minutes had elapsed that I saw he had ceased to breathe, for his eyes seemed to stare with meaning on me, and his countenance remained unchanged. At length, however, I became conscious that the struggle was over, and his spirit had passed away forever. The stillness of the room was terrible, for not a stir broke it; and I knelt down beside Marguerite to pray. “Here is the surgeon, mademoiselle,” said Lizette, hurriedly; and an old man drew nigh the bed and touched the wrist of the dead man. “Ma foi!” said he, “this is the fourth time I have been sent for to-day on a like errand;” and, so saying, he tapped me on the shoulder, and motioned me to follow him. I obeyed at once. “Are you his son?” asked he, briefly. “No,” I replied. “His nephew?--his clerk, then?” “Neither; I am a lodger here, and do not even claim acquaintance with the family.” “No matter,” resumed he, dryly, “you will do as well as another; give me pen and paper.” I took some from an open portfolio on the table and laid it before him, and he wrote rapidly a few lines in a straggling hand:-- “The citizen Louis Bernois, age--; domiciled, Rue Neuve de Viardot, No. 318, avocat,”--“we may call him _avocat_, though he was only a writer,” said he, looking up,--“wounded fatally in the lungs and heart, and attended till his death, on this morning, by the doctor Joseph Caillot, surgeon and licentiate. The above verified by me.”--“Sign here,” added he, handing me the pen, “and put your quality. Say, 'Friend of the family.'” “But I never knew them; I have only lodged in the house for some months back.” “What signifies that? It is a mere form for the authorities, to whom his death must be reported, or his family exposed to trouble and annoyance. I will take it to the bureau myself.” I signed my name, therefore, as he directed me, and sealed the “act” with a seal I found on the table. The doctor pocketed the paper and withdrew, not even bestowing on me a good-bye as he left the room. Lizette came to me for instructions as to what was to be done. Madame had never recovered consciousness from the very first moment of the misfortune; mademoiselle was too young and too inexperienced to be consulted on the occasion. The family, too, had only been a few months in Paris, and had no acquaintance save with the tradespeople they dealt with.