Page:Crainquebille, Putois, Riquet and other profitable tales, 1915.djvu/146

 132 pamphlets and inclined towards me across the table his bald head with its projecting forehead. "Yes, my good fellow," he added, "by a wonderful stroke of luck one of those phonomena described by Myers and Podmore as 'phantoms of the living' took place in all its phases before the very eyes of a man of science. I observed everything and noted everything down."

"I am listening."

"The time of the occurrence," resumed Laboullée, "was the summer of '91. My friend, Paul Buquet, of whom I have often spoken to you, was then living with his wife in a little flat in the Rue de Grenelle, opposite the fountain. You did not know Buquet?"

"I have seen him two or three times. A big fellow, bearded up to the eyes. His wife was dark, pale, large featured with long grey eyes."

"Exactly: a bilious temperament, nervous but fairly well balanced. However, when a woman lives in Paris her nerves get the upper hand and&mdash;then the deuce is in it. Did you ever see Adrienne?"

"I met her one evening in the Rue de la Paix, standing with her husband in front of a jeweller's window, her eyes fixed on some sapphires. A good-looking woman and deucedly well dressed for the wife of a poor wretch buried in the cellars of a