My explanation, thus offered, had its effect: it set him thinking.

"The sound of his voice!" he said to himself, still turning the problem over and over in his mind.

"People say my voice is exactly like Oscar's," he added, suddenly addressing himself to me.

"Do you think so too ?" I answered that there could be no doubt of it.

He got up from his chair, with a quick little shudder, like a man who feels a chill--and changed the subject.