ned aside from their primitive and divine object and have wandered
after a mystic, imperfectly perceived and intangible beauty. There are
some women like that, who blossom only for our dreams, adorned with every
poetical attribute of civilization, with that ideal luxury, coquetry and
esthetic charm which surround woman, a living statue that brightens our
life.

Her husband remained standing before her, stupefied at his tardy and
obscure discovery, confusedly hitting on the cause of his former jealousy
and understanding it all very imperfectly, and at last lie said: "I
believe you, for I feel at this moment that you are not lying, and before
I really thought that you were."

She put out her hand to him: "We are friends then?"

He took her hand and kissed it and replied: "We are friends. Thank you,
Gabrielle."

Then he went out, still looking at her, and surprised that she was still
so beautiful and feeling a strange emotion arising in him.

THE FATHER

I

He was a clerk in the Bureau of Public Education and lived at
Batignolles. He took the omnibus to Paris every morning and always sat
opposite a girl, with whom he fell in love.

She was employed in a shop and went in at the same time every day. She
was a little brunette, one of those girls whose eyes are so dark that
they look like black spots, on a complexion like ivory. He always saw her
coming at the corner of the same street, and she generally had to run to
catch the heavy vehicle, and sprang upon the steps before the horses had
quite stopped. Then she got inside, out of breath, and, sitting down,
looked round her.

The first time that he saw her, Francois Tessier liked the face. One
sometimes meets a woman whom one longs to clasp in one's arms without
even knowing her. That girl seemed to respond to some chord in his being,
to that sort of ideal of love which one cherishes in the depths of the
heart, without knowing it.

He looked at her intently, not meaning to be rude, and she became
embarrassed and blushed. He noticed it, and tried to turn away his eyes;
but he involuntarily fixed them upon her again every moment, although he
tried to look in another direction; and, in a few days, they seemed to
know each other without having spoken. He gave up his place to her when
the omnibus was full, and got outside, though he was very sorry to do it.
By this time she had got so far as to greet him with a little smile; and,
although she always dropped her