to the harvest festival. Claudie aids in the
preparations, and Sylvain, reproaching her tenderly for working after a
day so fatiguing, takes from her the severer part of the duties she has
undertaken. But she only replies in monosyllables, and does not turn her
eyes from the plates and other utensils she is engaged with. Sylvain,
troubled by this, withdraws, murmuring at her coldness and indifference.
We soon see the cause of this. A young peasant appears. It is the
handsome Denis Ronciat, the beau and cajoler of the village girls, who
utters an exclamation of surprise. A brief explanation informs us that
Denis was betrothed to Claudie when she was fifteen, that he had
deceived and abandoned her like a villain, leaving her a child, which
had since died. This explains the gloomy air of Claudie, her
indifference to the advances of Sylvain, and her almost fierce
determination never to marry. To complete his outrages, Denis boldly
avows his intention to marry Dame Rose, and offers money to her he has
betrayed, in order to bribe her to silence. The band of harvesters
appears, bearing in triumph the last sheaf, adorned with flowers and
ribbons. The grandfather, Remy, full of joy, pronounces a discourse of
rude and simple eloquence on the beneficence of Providence, and of the
sun He causes to shine, after which a collection is proposed in favor of
the orator and his granddaughter. Every one gives his offering. Dame
Rose puts in a new five-franc piece, the father Fauveau a penny, Sylvain
his watch, wishing that it were his heart, a child brings an apple, and
finally the last contributor approaches. This is Denis Ronciat: seeing
the seducer of his child, the indignation of the old man breaks out, he
rejects the offering, and falls as if struck with apoplexy, pronouncing
a sort of mysterious malediction, which freezes with horror all who hear
it. In the second act Claudie is still at the farm, her grandfather
having been sick there for two months. She has been engaged as a servant
to the farmer Fauveau, but has not given the least hope to Sylvain, who
has been constant in his attentions. Dame Rose, in the mean time, has
fallen in love with him, and is astonished that he has not declared
himself. Denis Ronciat, seeing his rival preferred, explains to the rich
widow why the lover she desires will not present himself, and from
vengeance and vanity divulges the secret of poor Claudie. Here we expect
a storm of insults and reproaches t