Volume II Part 9 (2/2)

She was really surprised, and raised her eyes to look at me, and I went on: ”Yes, Mademoiselle, and pray listen toabout him It does not matter to me the least if he is committed for trial and locked up meanwhile I saw you here last year, and I was so taken with you, that the thought of you has never left me since, and it does not ht you adorable, and the reed to see you again, and so I made use of that fool Morin as a pretext, and here I am Circumstances haveyou to pardon me”

She read the truth in ain; then she !” But I raised my hand, and said in a sincere voice, (and I really believe that I was sincere): ”I swear to you that I a the truth,” and she replied quite simply: ”Really?”

We were alone, quite alone, as Rivet and her uncle had disappeared in a sidewalk, and I made her a real declaration of love, while I squeezed and kissed her hands, and she listened to it as so how itated, and at last really , and I gently putinto the little curls over her ears She seeht was she

Then her hand touched ently squeezed her waist with a trerasp She did not move now, and I touched her cheeks withthe kiss, and it would have lasted longer still, if I had not heard a _huh the bushes, and turning round I saw Rivet co in the : ”So, that is the way in which you settle the affair of _that pig Morin_” And I replied, conceitedly: ”One does what one can, ot on with him? I will answer for the niece” ”I have not been so fortunate with him,” he replied

Whereupon I took his arm, and ent indoors

III

Dinner ether I sat beside her, and my hand continually met hers under the table cloth, my foot touched hers, and our looks encountered each other

After dinner we took a walk by s I could think of, to her I held her close to ainst hers, while her uncle and Rivet were disputing as they walked in front of us They went in, and soon athat she would not return until the nextat seven o'clock, by the first train

”Very well, Henriette,” her uncle said, ”go and show the gentlemen their rooms” She showed Rivet his first, and he whispered tous into yours first” Then she took me to my room, and as soon as she was alone with ain, and tried to excite her senses and overcome her resistance, but when she felt that she was near succuot between the sheets, veryrather foolish, for I knew that I should not sleephow I could have coentle knock atas there, a low voice replied: ”I”

I dressed ot to ask you what you take in the ,” she said: ”chocolate, tea or coffee?” I puther with kisses: ”I will takeI will take” But she freed herself from my arms, blew out my candle and disappeared, and leftto find soot so halfto do? I did not stop to reason, I only wanted to find her, and I would I went a few steps without reflecting, but then I suddenly thought to o into the uncle's room, what should I say?” And I stood still, withBut in a few ht of an answer: ”Of course, I shall say that I a for Rivet's rooan to inspect all the doors, trying to find hers, and at last I took hold of a handle at a venture, turned it and went inthere was Henriette, sitting on her bed and looking atup to her on tip-toe, I said: ”I forgot to ask you for soled and resisted, but I soon opened the book I was looking for I will not tell you its title, but it is the most wonderful of romances, the e, she let h so many chapters that our candles were quite burnt out Then, after thanking her, I was stealthily returning to h hand seized me, and a voice, it was Rivet's, whispered in my ear: 'So you have not yet quite settled that affair of Morin's?'”

At seven o'clock the next htlike it, soft, velvety, perfumed, delicious I could scarcely take my lips away from the cup, and she had hardly left the room when Rivet came in He seemed nervous and irritable, like a o on like this, you will end by spoiling the affair of _that pig of a Morin_!”

At eight o'clock the aunt arrived Our discussion was very short, for they withdrew their complaint, and I left five hundred francs for the poor of the town They wanted to keep us for the day, and they arranged an excursion to go and see sons to me to stay, behind her parents' back, and I accepted, but Rivet was detered and prayed him to do this fortoMorin's affair, do you hear?”

Of course I was obliged to go also, and it was one of the hardestthat business as long as I lived, and ere in the railway carriage, after shaking hands with her in silence, I said to Rivet: ”You are a inning to exciteto the _Fanal_ office, I saw a croaiting for us, and as soon as they saw us they all exclai of a Morin_?” All La Rochelle was excited about it, and Rivet, who had got over his ill-hu hied it, thanks to Labarbe” And ent to Morin's

He was sitting in an easy chair, with es on his head, nearly dead withht it, and his wife looked at hiress ready to eat him, and as soon as he saw us he trembled so violently as to make his hands and knees shake, so I said to him immediately: ”It is all settled, you dirty sca, took ed to a prince, cried, nearly fainted, eave hi back into his chair, but he never got over the blow: his mind had been too much upset In all the country round,of a Morin,” and that epithet went through him like a sword thrust every ti!” he turned his head instinctively His friends also overwhelmed him with horrible jokes, and used to ask hi ham: ”It's a bit of you?” He died two years later

As for myself, when I was a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in 1875, I called on the new notary at Fouserre, Monsieur Belloncle, to solicit his vote, and a tall, handsome and evidently wealthy lady received ain?” she said And I stammered out: ”Butno Mada pale, while she seemed perfectly at her ease, and looked at me with a smile

As soon as she had left me alone with her husband, he took boththem as if he o and see you for a long time, my dear sir, for my wife has very often talked to me about you I knowyes, I know under what painful circumstances you made her acquaintance, and I know also how perfectly you behaved, how full of delicacy, tact and devotion you showed yourself in the affair” He hesitated, and then said in a lower tone, as if he had been saying so of a Morin”

THE WOODEN SHOES

The old priest was sputtering out the last words of his serh or poe baskets of the farmer's wives who had coround beside them, and the heavy heat of a July day caused them all to exhale a smell like that of cattle, or of a flock of sheep, and the cocks could be heard crowing through the large west door, which ide open, as well as the lowing of the cows in a neighboring field ”As God wishes Amen!” the priest said Then he ceased, opened a book, and, as he did every week, he began to give notice of all the s week He was an old man hite hair who had been in the parish for over forty years, and fro familiarly to them all, and so he went on: ”I recommend Desire Vallin, who is very ill, to your prayers, and also la Pau frootten the rest, and so he looked for the slips of paper which were put away in a breviary, and at last he found two and continued: ”I will not have the lads and the girls co, as they do; otherwise I shall inform the rural policeman