, had unbuttoned his
waistcoat and the top of his trousers, while his wife, who felt
choking, was gradually unfastening her dress. The youth was shaking his
yellow wig in a happy frame of mind, and kept helping himself to wine,
and as the old grandmother felt drunk, she endeavored to be very stiff
and dignified. As for the girl, she showed nothing except a peculiar
brightness in her eyes, while the brown skin on the cheeks became more
rosy.

The coffee finished them off; they spoke of singing, and each of them
sang, or repeated a couplet, which the others repeated
enthusiastically. Then they got up with some difficulty, and while the
two women, who were rather dizzy, were getting some fresh air, the two
males, who were altogether drunk, were performing gymnastic tricks.
Heavy, limp, and with scarlet faces, they hung awkwardly on to the iron
rings, without being able to raise themselves, while their shirts were
continually threatening to part company with their trousers, and to
flap in the wind like flags.

Meanwhile, the two boating-men had got their skiffs into the water.
They came back, and politely asked the ladies whether they would like a
row.

"Would you like one, Monsieur Dufour?" his wife exclaimed. "Please
come!"

He merely gave her a drunken look, without understanding what she said.
Then one of the rowers came up, with two fishing-rods in his hand; and
the hope of catching a gudgeon, that great aim of the Parisian
shopkeeper, made Dufour's dull eyes gleam. He politely allowed them to
do whatever they liked, while he sat in the shade, under the bridge,
with his feet dangling over the river, by the side of the young man
with the yellow hair, who was sleeping soundly close to him.

One of the boating-men made a martyr of himself, and took the mother.

"Let us go to the little wood on the Ile aux Anglais!" he called out,
as he rowed off. The other skiff went slower, for the rower was looking
at his companion so intently, that he thought of nothing else. His
emotion paralyzed his strength, while the girl, who was sitting on the
steerer's seat, gave herself up to the enjoyment of being on the water.
She felt disinclined to think, felt a lassitude in her limbs a complete
self-relaxation, as if she were intoxicated. She had become very
flushed, and breathed pantingly. The effect of the wine, increased by
the extreme heat, made all the trees on the bank seem to bow, as she
passed. A vague wish for enjoyment, a