She showed the lock of hair to Riche and Marcel, but they only smiled and shook their heads when she told them that her mother had cut it off from her own head only the night before.
"No, no, mademoiselle, you can't make us believe that your mother really appeared to you in the flesh and cut off a lock of her hair with a pair of scissors, and handed it to you."
"But I assure you, doctor, it is perfectly true."
"The vigil has been too much for Renée, poor child," said Riche to Villebois as they were discussing the vision. "Her reason has broken down under the strain."
"Yes," said Villebois, "I agree that we must send her away for a change somewhere, or she will have brain fever, or lose her reason altogether."
"I am afraid that those visions of her mother show that she has lost her senses already," said Riche.
"But how do you account for the lock of hair?" said Villebois.
"Why it's Renée's own hair of course, or else that of her maid."
"Well it can't be that of her maid, because that is raven black."