One of his friends proposed to go with him, but he begged him not to do so, saying, 'Perhaps I shall see you later on at the opera, but do not count on me.' The general impression was that he was going to some love tryst." "His friends thought that, I suppose." "Yes, for he was attired with more care than usual, though he was always one of the best dressed men in Paris.

He went out alone, and was never seen again." "Never again," repeated the Countess, a slight shade passing across her brow.
"Never again," echoed the unmoved doctor.

"At first his friends merely thought his absence strange; but at the end of a week they grew anxious." "You go very much into details." "I heard them all at the time, madame, and they were only brought back to my memory this morning.

All are to be found in the records of a minute search that the authorities caused to be made into the affair.
The friends of De Croisenois had commenced the search; but when they found their efforts useless, they called in the aid of the police.

The first idea was suicide: George might have gone into some lonely spot and blown out his brains.