ur strength, as I love you."

And never had they eaten with more relish. She displayed the appetite of
a healthy young girl with a good digestion; she ate the potatoes with a
hearty appetite, laughing, thinking them delicious, better than the
most vaunted delicacies. He, too, recovered the appetite of his youthful
days. They drank with delight deep draughts of pure water. Then the
grapes for dessert filled them with admiration; these grapes so fresh,
this blood of the earth which the sun had touched with gold. They ate
to excess; they became drunk on water and fruit, and more than all on
gaiety. They did not remember ever before to have enjoyed such a feast
together; even the famous breakfast they had made, with its luxuries of
cutlets and bread and wine, had not given them this intoxication, this
joy in living, when to be together was happiness enough, changing the
china to dishes of gold, and the miserable food to celestial fare such
as not even the gods enjoyed.

It was now quite dark, but they did not light the lamp. Through the
wide open windows they could see the vast summer sky. The night breeze
entered, still warm and laden with a faint odor of lavender. The moon
had just risen above the horizon, large and round, flooding the room
with a silvery light, in which they saw each other as in a dream light
infinitely bright and sweet.

XI.

But on the following day their disquietude all returned. They were now
obliged to go in debt. Martine obtained on credit bread, wine, and
a little meat, much to her shame, be it said, forced as she was to
maneuver and tell lies, for no one was ignorant of the ruin that had
overtaken the house. The doctor had indeed thought of mortgaging La
Souleiade, but only as a last resource. All he now possessed was this
property, which was worth twenty thousand francs, but for which he would
perhaps not get fifteen thousand, if he should sell it; and when these
should be spent black want would be before them, the street, without
even a stone of their own on which to lay their heads. Clotilde
therefore begged Pascal to wait and not to take any irrevocable step so
long as things were not utterly desperate.

Three or four days passed. It was the beginning of September, and
the weather unfortunately changed; terrible storms ravaged the entire
country; a part of the garden wall was blown down, and as Pascal was
unable to rebuild it, the yawning breach remained. Already they were
beginni