have to go before the courts at our age, for a breach of morals!
And we shall have to shut up the shop, sell our good will, and go to some
other neighborhood! That's what it has come to."

Madame Beaurain got up, and without looking at her husband, she explained
herself without embarrassment, without useless modesty, and almost
without hesitation.

"Of course, monsieur, I know that we have made ourselves ridiculous. Will
you allow me to plead my cause like an advocate, or rather like a poor
woman? And I hope that you will be kind enough to send us home, and to
spare us the disgrace of a prosecution.

"Years ago, when I was young, I made Monsieur Beaurain's acquaintance one
Sunday in this neighborhood. He was employed in a draper's shop, and I
was a saleswoman in a ready-made clothing establishment. I remember it as
if it were yesterday. I used to come and spend Sundays here occasionally
with a friend of mine, Rose Leveque, with whom I lived in the Rue
Pigalle, and Rose had a sweetheart, while I had none. He used to bring us
here, and one Saturday he told me laughing that he should bring a friend
with him the next day. I quite understood what he meant, but I replied
that it would be no good; for I was virtuous, monsieur.

"The next day we met Monsieur Beaurain at the railway station, and in
those days he was good-looking, but I had made up my mind not to
encourage him, and I did not. Well, we arrived at Bezons. It was a lovely
day, the sort of day that touches your heart. When it is fine even now,
just as it used to be formerly, I grow quite foolish, and when I am in
the country I utterly lose my head. The green grass, the swallows flying
so swiftly, the smell of the grass, the scarlet poppies, the daisies, all
that makes me crazy. It is like champagne when one is not accustomed to
it!

"Well, it was lovely weather, warm and bright, and it seemed to penetrate
your body through your eyes when you looked and through your mouth when
you breathed. Rose and Simon hugged and kissed each other every minute,
and that gave me a queer feeling! Monsieur Beaurain and I walked behind
them, without speaking much, for when people do not know each other, they
do not find anything to talk about. He looked timid, and I liked to see
his embarrassment. At last we got to the little wood; it was as cool as
in a bath there, and we four sat down. Rose and her lover teased me
because I looked rather stern, but you will understand that I cou