Salimberi left us, and returned a short time afterwards with the instrument which would complete my transformation.

He taught me, in the presence of my new mother, how to fix it with some tragacanth gum, and I found myself exactly like my friend.

I would have laughed at it, had not my heart been deeply grieved at the departure of my beloved Salimberi, for he bade me farewell as soon as the curious operation was completed.

People laugh at forebodings; I do not believe in them myself, but the foreboding of evil, which almost broke my heart as he gave me his farewell kiss, did not deceive me.

I felt the cold shivering of death run through me; I felt I was looking at him for the last time, and I fainted away.