Chapter 56

AND OTHER STORIES 49 in g of Sunday, June the twenty-second, 18 — . In going out, she gave notice to a Monsieur Jacques St. Eustache, and to him only, of her intention to spend the day with an aunt who resided in the Rue des Dromes. The Rue des Dromes is a short and narrow but populous thorough1 fare, not far from the banks of the river, and at a distance of some two miles, in the most direct course possible from the pension of Madame Roget. St. Eustache was the j accepted suitor of Marie, and lodged, as well as took his i meals, at the pension . He was to have gone for his betrothed at dusk, and to have escorted her home. In the afternoon, however, it came on to rain heavily; and, supposing that she would remain all night at her aunt's (as she had done under similar circumstances before), he did not think it necessary to keep his promise. As night drew on, Madame Roget (who was an infirm old lady, seventy years of age) was heard to express a fear “that she should never see Marie again"; but this observation attracted little attention at the time. On Monday, it was ascertained that the girl had not been to the Rue des Dromes; and when the day elapsed without tidings of her a tardy search was instituted at several points in the city and its environs. It was not, however, until the fourth day from the period of her disappearance that anything satisfactory was ascertained respecting her. On this day (Wednesday, the twenty-fifth of June), a Monsieur Beauvais, who, with a friend, had been making inquiries for Marie near the Barriere du Roule, on the shore of the Seine which is opposite the Rue Pavee Andree, was informed that a corpse had just been towed ashore by some fishermen, who had found it floating in the river. Upon seeing the body, Beauvais, ’after some hesitation, identified it as that of the perfumery-girl. His friend recognized it more promptly. The face was suffused with dark blood, some of which issued from the mouth. No foam was seen, as in the case