n answered: "Perhaps a little less than that. She is black, but not
disgustingly black. The cure's cassock is black, but it is not uglier
than a surplice which is white."

The father said: "Are there more black people besides her in her
country?"

And the son, with an air of conviction, exclaimed: "Certainly!"

But the old man shook his head.

"That must be unpleasant."

And the son:

"It isn't more disagreeable than anything else when you get accustomed to
it."

The mother asked:

"It doesn't soil the underwear more than other skins, this black skin?"

"Not more than your own, as it is her proper color."

Then, after many other questions, it was agreed that the parents should
see this girl before coming; to any decision, and that the young fellow,
whose, term of military service would be over in a month, should bring
her to the house in order that they might examine her and decide by
talking the matter over whether or not she was too dark to enter the
Boitelle family.

Antoine accordingly announced that on Sunday, the 22d of May, the day of
his discharge, he would start for Tourteville with his sweetheart.

She had put on, for this journey to the house of her lover's parents, her
most beautiful and most gaudy clothes, in which yellow, red and blue were
the prevailing colors, so that she looked as if she were adorned for a
national festival.

At the terminus, as they were leaving Havre, people stared at her, and
Boitelle was proud of giving his arm to a person who commanded so much
attention. Then, in the third-class carriage, in which she took a seat by
his side, she aroused so much astonishment among the country folks that
the people in the adjoining compartments stood up on their benches to
look at her over the wooden partition which divides the compartments. A
child, at sight of her, began to cry with terror, another concealed his
face in his mother's apron. Everything went off well, however, up to
their arrival at their destination. But when the train slackened its rate
of motion as they drew near Yvetot, Antoine felt: ill at ease, as he
would have done at a review when; he did not know his drill practice.
Then, as he; leaned his head out, he recognized in the distance: his
father, holding the bridle of the horse harnessed to a carryall, and his
mother, who had come forward to the grating, behind which stood those who
were expecting friends.

He alighted first, gave his hand to his sweetheart, and