THE OLD MAN.

Did you see the two sisters' hair quiver on their shoulders?

THE STRANGER.

They turned their heads this way.... They simply turned their heads.
Perhaps I spoke too loud. [_The two young girls resume their former
position._] But they are already looking no longer.... I went into the
water up to my waist and I was able to take her by the hand and
pull her without effort to the shore.... She was as beautiful as her
sisters are.

THE OLD MAN.

She was perhaps more beautiful.... I do not know why I have lost all
courage....

THE STRANGER.

What courage are you talking of? We have done all man could do.... She
was dead more than an hour ago....

THE OLD MAN.

She was alive this morning!... I met her coming out of church.... She
told me she was going away; she was going to see her grandmother on
the other side of the river where you found her.... She did not know
when I should see her again.... She must have been on the point of
asking me something; then she dared not and left me abruptly. But I
think of it now.... And I saw nothing!... She smiled as they smile who
choose to be silent, or who are afraid they will not be understood....
She seemed hardly to hope.... Her eyes were not clear and hardly
looked at me....

THE STRANGER.

Some peasants told me they had seen her wandering on the river-bank
until nightfall.... They thought she was looking for flowers.... It
may be that her death....

THE OLD MAN.

We cannot tell.... What is there we can tell?... She was perhaps of
those who do not wish to speak, and every one of us bears in himself
more than one reason for no longer living.... We cannot see in the
soul as we see in that room. They are all like that.... They only say
trite things; and no one suspects aught.... You live for months by
some one who is no longer of this world and whose soul can bend no
longer; you answer without thinking; and you see what happens.... They
look like motionless dolls, and, oh, the events that take place in
their souls!... They do not know themselves what they are.... She
would have lived as the rest live.... She would have said up to her
death: "Monsieur, Madame, we shall have rain this morning," or else,
"We are going to breakfast; we shall be thirteen at table," or else:
"The fruits are not yet ripe." They speak with a smile of the flowers
that have fallen, and weep in the dark.... An angel even would not see
what should be seen; and man only understand