“Do you know what she did before she left? She broke open my drawer and burnt all my late brother’s letters. She has always been jealous of my brother; especially since he died. She used to make scenes when she found me reading his letters at night. She used to cry out: ‘Ah! you wanted me to go to bed! You do things on the sly!’ Or else: ‘You had far better go to bed and sleep. You’re tiring your eyes.’ One would have said she was full of attentions; but I know her; it was jealousy. She didn’t want to leave me alone with him.” “Because she loved you. There’s no jealousy without love.” “Well, you must allow it’s a melancholy business when love, instead of making the happiness of life, becomes its calamity.... That’s no doubt the way God loves us.” He had become excited while he was speaking and all of a sudden he exclaimed: “I’m hungry. When I want to eat, that servant always brings me chocolate. I suppose Madame de La Pérouse must have told her that I never took anything else. It would be very kind of you to go to the kitchen ... the second door on the right in the passage ... and see whether there aren’t any eggs. I think she told me there were some....” “Would you like her to get you a poached egg?” “I think I could eat two. Will you be so kind? I can’t make myself understood.” “My dear friend,” said I when I came back, “your eggs will be ready in a moment. If you’ll allow me I’ll stay and see you eat them; yes; it will be a pleasure. I was very much distressed just now to hear you say that you were of no good to anyone. You seem to forget your grandson. Your friend, Monsieur Azaïs, proposes that you should go and live with him, at the school. He commissioned me to tell you so. He thinks that now that Madame de La Pérouse is no longer here, there’s nothing to keep you.” I expected some resistance, but he hardly enquired the conditions of the new existence which was offered him. “Though I didn’t kill myself, I am none the less dead. Here or there, it doesn’t matter to me. You can take me away.” It was settled I should come and fetch him the next day but one; and that before then I should put at his disposal two trunks, for him to pack his clothes in and anything else he might want to take with him. “And besides,” I added, “as you will keep this apartment on till the expiration of your lease, you will always be able to come and fetch anything you need.” The maid brought in the eggs, which he devoured hungrily. I ordered dinner for him, greatly relieved to see that nature at last was getting the upper hand. “I give you a great deal of trouble,” he kept repeating. “You are very kind.” I should have liked him to hand over his pistols to me, and I told him he had no use for them now; but he would not consent to part with them.