"Then, my brother, why, I ask again, have you been so weak as to renounce your pursuit of him? You do not reply, you seem to be embarrassed."
"Alas, abbé, you are going to scold me, to lecture me again."
"What shall I say? It is his fault, for, since he has disappeared, all my thoughts come from him and return to him."
"Come," said the abbé, shrugging his shoulders, "do explain yourself, my brother."
"Well, then, abbé, know that the day after the fatal day when I breakfasted as I shall never breakfast again, alas! when my despair was at its height, I received a mysterious note."
"It is perhaps his cherished handwriting," murmured the canon, with a melancholy accent.
And he handed the note to Abbé Ledoux, who read as follows:
"MY LORD CANON:--There remains perhaps one means of seeing me again.
"You now know the delights with which I am able to surfeit you.
"You also know the terrible torments which my absence inflicts.
"Before yesterday, not having felt these torments in all their anguish, you presumed to refuse what I expected of you.
"To-day, as past sufferings will be a guarantee for the sufferings to come, listen to me.
"For that, you must grant me three things.
"I demand the first to-day; in eight days the second; in fifteen days the third.
"I proportion the importance of my demands to the progress of your suffering, because the more you suffer, the more you will regret me and show yourself docile.
"Send back by the bearer of this note, your nonsuit of all complaint against Captain Horace.
"Give me by this act a proof of your desire to satisfy me, and then you will be able to hope that you may find again
When Abbé Ledoux had finished reading this note, he reflected a moment in silence, while the canon, repeating the last words of the letter, said, bitterly:
"'And you will be able to hope to find Appetite!' What cruel irony in this pitiless pun!"
"That is singular," said the abbé, thoughtfully. "Did you see the bearer of this note, Dom Diégo?"
"Did I see him? Could I lose this opportunity to speak of _him?"_
"Ah, well, one would have thought I was speaking Hebrew to this animal. To my most pressing questions, he responded with a stupid air. I was not able to draw from him either the address or the name of the person who had sent me the note."