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?© de, 1799-1850

"Ursula"


"There must be an end put to this," he said to himself as he
re-entered his own home.
When Ursula came down, bring her certificates and those of La
Bougival, she found Monsieur Bongrand walking up and down the salon
with great strides.
"Have you no idea what the conduct of that huge idiot means?" he said.
"None that I can tell," she replied.
Bongrand looked at her with inquiring surprise.
"Then we have the same idea," he said. "Here, keep the number of your
certificates, in case I lose them; you should always take that
precaution."
Bongrand himself wrote the number of the two certificates, hers and
that of La Bougival, and gave them to her.
"Adieu, my child, I shall be gone two days, but you will see me on the
third."
That night the apparition appeared to Ursula in a singular manner. She
thought her bed was in the cemetery of Nemours, and that her uncle's
grave was at the foot of it. The white stone, on which she read the
inscription, opened, like the cover of an oblong album. She uttered a
piercing cry, but the doctor's spectre slowly rose. First she saw his
yellow head, with its fringe of white hair, which shone as if
surmounted by a halo.


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