well, gentlemen, i do not know whether you ever heard of an engineer of the roads corps named telesforo x—-; he died in 1860."
"no; i haven't."
"but i have."
"so have i. he was a young fellow from andalusia, with a black moustache; he was to have married the marquis of moreda's daughter, but he died of jaundice."
"the very one," said gabriel. "well, then, my friend telesforo, six months before his death, was still a most promising young man, as they say nowadays. he was good-looking, well-built, energetic, and had the glory of being the first one in his class to be promoted. he had already gained distinction in the practice of his profession through some fine pieces of work. several different companies were competing for his services, and many marriageable women were also competing for him. but telesforo, as you said, was faithful to poor joaquina moreda.
"as you know, it turned out that she died suddenly at the baths of santa agueda, at the end of the summer of 1859. i was in pau when i received the sad news of her death, which affected me very much on account of my close friendship with telesforo. with her i had spoken only once, in the house of her aunt, the wife of general lopez, and i certainly thought her bluish pallor a symptom of bad health. but, however that may be, she had a distinguished manner and a great deal of grace, and was, besides, the only daughter of a title, and a title that carried some comfortable thousands with it; so i felt sure my good mathematician would be inconsolable. consequently, as soon as i was back in madrid, fifteen or twenty days after his loss, i went to see them very early one morning. he lived in elegant batchelor quarters in lobo street—i do not remember the number, but it was near the carrera de san jeronimo.
"the young engineer was very melancholy, although calm and apparently master of his grief. he was already at work, even at that hour, laboring with his assistants over some railroad plans or other. he was dressed in deep mourning.
"he greeted me with a long and close embrace, without so much as sighing. then he gave some directions to his assistants about the work in hand, and afterwards led me to his private office at the farther end of the house. as we were on our way there he said, in a sorrowful tone and without glancing at me:
"'i am very glad you have come. several times i have found myself wishing you were here. a very strange thing has happened to me. only a friend such as you are can hear of it without thinking me either a fool or crazy. i want to get an opinion about it as calm and cool as science itself.
"'sit down,' he went on when we had reached his office, 'and do not imagine that i am going to afflict you with a description of the sorrow i am suffering—a sorrow which will last as long as i live. why should i? you can easily picture it to yourself, little as you know of trouble. and as for being comforted, i do not wish to be, either now, or later, or ever! what i am going to speak to you about, with the requisite deliberation, going back to the very beginning of the thing, is a horrible and mysterious occurrence, which was an infernal omen of my calamity, and which has distressed me in a frightful manner.'
"'go on,' i replied, sitting down. the fact was, i almost repented having entered the house as i saw the expression of abject fear on my friend's face.
"'listen, then,' said he, wiping the perspiration from his forehead."
