Mathurin keeps bringing Jeremy to the local tavern to drink until midnight, supposedly leaving Jeremy's wife alone. Mathurin keeps winking at the barkeep to bring more alcohol and when asked about how his brother is doing he says, "Don't worry; he's warm alright." On previous nights Jeremy has fallen into ditches instead of making it home. This time, however, he's suspicious. The door opens but his wife doesn't respond. He throws a chair around, beating with it until it falls to its constituents. The ending is left ambiguous.

Maupassant sure has enough dark stories to go head to head with Poe, even though their styles couldn't be more different. But they both frequently write about the cruel things in life.

Normally I don't like these kinds of stories, but I admit that it read smoothly and since it's about 1,600 words I didn't have the chance to loose interest. In this story, I started out thinking Jeremy was a decent husband because he had to be convinced to party instead of spending the evening with Malina, but of course he gets drunk and it's a game of anticipating what kind of drunkard he is. ( )