A Pair of Ears Sceaux, occupied by Comte de S. with his young wife, an extremely pretty woman, with whom he was desperately in love. You have divined that he was an Othello under the mask of a man of fashion?" "No, I knew nothing about him." "A Bengal tiger could be no worse. One evening, late in January, he returned front Paris by the railway, his feet half benumbed by the cold, and his eyes smarting from the glare of the snow, and dashed into the villa without ringing or knocking, like a hurri cane, going straight to his wife's room. Do you know what he saw there?" "Aha! Here's the key of the drama. Yhat did he see?" "A very good looking young man vho seemed to be pressing the countess's hand." "The deuce!" "Not doubting that it was some admirer, he rushed to the weapons decorating the wall, snatched this dagger and, in less time than it requires to tell it, cut off the stranger's ears." "Ye gods of heaven and earth! Both of them!" "Those are the articles you see so care fully preserved in that case. Justice keeps them as evidence of criminality." "But the young wife?" "Wait! The fair countess exclaimed, 'My dear, you are mistaken! My dear, monsieur is a stranger! My dear, you have cut off one ear; spare the other, 1 beseech you!" But you know tigers are always still more in furiated by the sight of blood. Besides, the more his young wife tried to soothe him, the more he imagined that she was in league with the visitor. He did not stop till both ears were hacked off." "Well, what was the fellow doing there?" "I'll tell you. Did you ever read a story by Balzac, called Message? A young man is accused by a friend of carrying a letter to a young married woman. Except for the ex istence of a secret love, the situation was
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identical. The stranger who called at the villa near Sceaux, was bringing a message, a letter from a boarding-school friend, which by chance he handed to her just at the mo ment Othello appeared on the scene. You know the rest." "A mistake!" "Yes, but the young man, as you may sup pose, will not let matters rest there. As Comte de S. cannot give back his ears, he intends to make him pay damages. Com plaint has been brought, with a demand for valuation to serve as a basis for estimating the damages, which will not be less than two hundred thousand francs." "What are you saying? A hundred thou sand francs apiece. Come, that's pretty clear!" "Would you give yours for that sum?" "No, of course not; but that isn't the ques tion. We are wandering from the drama. Per mit me to return to it. What was the mes sage sent by one boarding-school friend to the other? It must be known. The exami nation would not fail to reveal it." "The examination did reveal it, since the message was opened and read. The young beauty in Paris wrote to her schoolmate in Sceaux: 'I have just consulted Dr. Z. whom all the young women in Paris are questioning about their complexions. I generously send you his prescription: If you want to have a fresh completion throughout the year, bathe your face daily, during the month of 3/av, cvcr morning, ivith dandelion juice. Alice Z.'" "What! Has dandelion juice been the cause of a jealous husband's cutting off an innocent man's ears and making the Palais de Justice echo with the absurd lawsuit?" As you see, monsieur." The young lawyer, smiling, left the room repeating the two philosophical lines by Voltaire: Oh, Jupiter, it was a bitter jest When thou dids't create mortals.
