not yet
understanding himself. Then the girl seated herself beside Luc, and
they began to chatter.

Jean did not look at them. He now divined why his comrade had gone out
twice during the week, and he felt within him a burning grief, a kind
of wound, that sense of rending which is caused by treason.

Luc and the girl went off together to change the position of the cow.
Jean followed them with his eyes. He saw them departing side by side.
The red breeches of his comrade made a bright spot on the road. It was
Luc who picked up the mallet and hammered down the stake to which they
tied the beast.

The girl stooped to milk her, while he stroked the cow's sharp spine
with a careless hand. Then they left the milk-pail on the grass, and
went deep into the wood.

Jean saw nothing but the wall of leaves where they had entered; and he
felt himself so troubled that if he had tried to rise he would
certainly have fallen. He sat motionless, stupefied by astonishment and
suffering, with an agony which was simple but deep. He wanted to cry,
to run away, to hide himself, never to see anybody any more.

Soon he saw them issuing from the thicket. They returned slowly,
holding each other's hands as in the villages do those who are
promised. It was Luc who carried the pail.

They kissed one another again before they separated, and the girl went
off after having thrown Jean a friendly "Good evening" and a smile
which was full of meaning. To-day she no longer thought of offering him
any milk.

The two little soldiers sat side by side, motionless as usual, silent
and calm, their placid faces betraying nothing of all which troubled
their hearts. The sun fell on them. Sometimes the cow lowed, looking at
them from afar.

At their usual hour they rose to go back. Luc cut a switch. Jean
carried the empty bottle to return it to the wine-seller at Bezons.
Then they sallied out upon the bridge, and, as they did every Sunday,
stopped several minutes in the middle to watch the water flowing.

Jean leaned, leaned more and more, over the iron railing, as though he
saw in the current something which attracted him. Luc said: "Are you
trying to drink?" Just as he uttered the last word Jean's head
overbalanced his body, his legs described a circle in the air, and the
little blue and red soldier fell in a heap, struck the water, and
disappeared.

Luc, his tongue paralyzed with anguish, tried in vain to shout. Farther
down he saw something stir;