ming growths there cleaved the
rugged soil, monstrous plants lay motionless in the heat, like drowsing
reptiles; a silvery streak, a foamy splash that glistened in the
distance like a cloud of pearls, revealed the presence of a waterfall,
the source of those tranquil streams that lazily skirted the
flower-garden. Lastly, on the left the river flowed through a vast
stretch of meadowland, where it parted into four streamlets which winded
fitfully beneath the rushes, between the willows, behind the taller
trees. And far away into the distance grassy patches prolonged the
lowland freshness, forming a landscape steeped in bluish haze, where
a gleam of daylight slowly melted into the verdant blue of sunset. The
Paradou--its flower-garden, forest, rocks, streams, and meadows--filled
the whole breadth of sky.

'The Paradou!' stammered Serge, stretching out his arms as if to clasp
the entire garden to his breast.

He tottered, and Albine had to seat him in an armchair. There he sat
for two whole hours intently gazing, without opening his lips, his chin
resting on his hands. At times his eyelids fluttered and a flush rose
to his cheeks. Slowly he looked, profoundly amazed. It was all too vast,
too complex, too overpowering.

'I cannot see, I cannot understand,' he cried, stretching out his hands
to Albine with a gesture of uttermost weariness.

The girl came and leant over the back of his armchair. Taking his head
between her hands, she compelled him to look again, and softly said:

'It's all our own. Nobody will ever come in. When you are well again, we
will go for walks there. We shall have room enough for walking all our
lives. We'll go wherever you like. Where would you like to go?'

He smiled.

'Oh! not far,' he murmured. 'The first day only two steps or so beyond
the door. I should surely fall---- See, I'll go over there, under that
tree close to the window.'

But she resumed: 'Would you like to go into the flower-garden, the
parterre? You shall see the roses--they have over-run everything, even
the old paths are all covered with them. Or would you like the orchard
better? I can only crawl into it on my hands and knees, the boughs are
so bowed down with fruit. But we'll go even farther if you feel strong
enough. We'll go as far as the forest, right into the depths of shade,
far, far away; so far that we'll sleep out there when night steals over
us. Or else, some morning, we can climb up yonder to the summit of
tho