to the Baron, who kissed it softly. Yvette and
Servigny started. They went along the river, crossed the bridge and
went on to the island, and then seated themselves on the bank,
beneath the willows, for it was too soon to go to La Grenouillere.

The young girl at once drew a book from her pocket and smilingly
said: "Muscade, you are going to read to me." And she handed him the
volume.

He made a motion as if of fright. "I, Mam'zelle? I don't know how to
read!"

She replied with gravity: "Come, no excuses, no objections; you are
a fine suitor, you! All for nothing, is that it? Is that your
motto?"

He took the book, opened it, and was astonished. It was a treatise
on entomology. A history of ants by an English author. And as he
remained inert, believing that he was making sport of her, she said
with impatience: "Well, read!"

"Is it a wager, or just a simple fad?" he asked.

"No, my dear. I saw that book in a shop. They told me that it was
the best authority on ants and I thought that it would be
interesting to learn about the life of these little insects while
you see them running over the grass; so read, if you please."

She stretched herself flat upon the grass, her elbows resting upon
the ground, her head between her hands, her eyes fixed upon the
ground. He began to read as follows:

"The anthropoid apes are undoubtedly the animals which approach
nearest to man by their anatomical structure, but if we consider the
habits of the ants, their organization into societies, their vast
communities, the houses and roads that they construct, their custom
of domesticating animals, and sometimes even of making slaves of
them, we are compelled to admit that they have the right to claim a
place near to man in the scale of intelligence."

He continued in a monotonous voice, stopping from time to time to
ask: "Isn't that enough?"

She shook her head, and having caught an ant on the end of a severed
blade of grass, she amused herself by making it go from one end to
the other of the sprig, which she tipped up whenever the insect
reached one of the ends. She listened with mute and contented
attention to all the wonderful details of the life of these frail
creatures: their subterranean homes; the manner in which they seize,
shut up, and feed plant-lice to drink the sweet milk which they
secrete, as we keep cows in our barns; their custom of domesticating
little blind insects which clean the anthills, and of going to war