l shivered in frightful distress. A heavy, infinite silence,
which seemed eternal, hung over the world. She could no longer
breathe, her breast oppressed by something unknown and horrible.
Another flash of lightning illumined space, lighting up the horizon
for an instant, then another almost immediately came, followed by
still others. And the voice, which she had already heard, repeated
more loudly: "Oh! how I love you! how I love you!" And Yvette
recognized the voice; it was her mother's.

A large drop of warm rain fell upon her brow, and a slight and
almost imperceptible motion ran through the leaves, the quivering of
the rain which was now beginning. Then a noise came from afar, a
confused sound, like that of the wind in the branches: it was the
deluge descending in sheets on earth and river and trees. In a few
minutes the water poured about her, covering her, drenching her like
a shower-bath. She did not move, thinking only of what was happening
on the terrace.

She heard them get up and go to their rooms. Doors were closed
within the house; and the young girl, yielding to an irresistible
desire to learn what was going on, a desire which maddened and
tortured her, glided downstairs, softly opened the outer door, and,
crossing the lawn under the furious downpour, ran and hid in a clump
of trees, to look at the windows.

Only one window was lighted, her mother's. And suddenly two shadows
appeared in the luminous square, two shadows, side by side. Then
distracted, without reflection, without knowing what she was doing,
she screamed with all her might, in a shrill voice: "Mamma!" as a
person would cry out to warn people in danger of death.

Her desperate cry was lost in the noise of the rain, but the couple
separated, disturbed. And one of the shadows disappeared, while the
other tried to discover something, peering through the darkness of
the garden.

Fearing to be surprised, or to meet her mother at that moment,
Yvette rushed back to the house, ran upstairs, dripping wet, and
shut herself in her room, resolved to open her door to no one.

Without taking, off her streaming dress, which clung to her form,
she fell on her knees, with clasped hands, in her distress imploring
some superhuman protection, the mysterious aid of Heaven, the
unknown support which a person seeks in hours of tears and despair.

The great lightning flashes threw for an instant their livid
reflections into her room, and she saw herself in