vexation, as though indeed he
liked thus being teased. Then after a short silence, grieved to see her
pouting, and longing for a renewal of her caresses, he opened his lips
and asked: 'Where is it?'

She did not answer him immediately. Her eyes seemed to be wandering far
away: 'It is over yonder,' she murmured at last. 'I cannot explain to
you clearly. One has to go down the long avenue, and then to turn to
the left, and then again to the left. We must have passed it at least a
score of times. You might look for it for ever without finding it, if
I didn't go with you to show you. I could find my way to it quite
straight, though I could never explain it to you.'

'And who took you there?'

'I don't know. That morning the trees and plants seemed to drive me
there. The long branches pushed me on, the grass bent down before me
invitingly, the paths seemed to open expressly for me to take them. And
I believe the animals themselves helped to lead me there, for I saw a
stag trotting on before me as though he wanted me to follow; while a
company of bullfinches flitted on from tree to tree, and warned me with
their cries whenever I was about to take a wrong direction.'

'And is it very beautiful?'

Again she did not reply. Deep ecstasy filled her eyes; at last, when she
was able to speak again, she said: 'Ah! so beautiful, that I could
never tell you of it. I was so charmed that I was conscious only of
some supreme joy, which I could not name, falling from the leaves and
slumbering amid the grass. And I ran back here to take you along with me
that I might not be without you.'

Then she clasped her arms round his neck again, and entreated him
passionately, her lips almost pressed to his own.

'Oh! you will come!' she stammered; 'you must come; you will make me so
miserable if you don't. You can't want me to be miserable.... And even
if you knew that you would die there, even if that shade should be fatal
to both of us, would you hesitate or cast a regretful look behind? We
should remain there, at the foot of the tree, and sleep on quietly for
ever, in one anther's arms. Ah! would it not be bliss indeed?'

'Yes, yes!' he stammered, transported by her passionate entreaties.

'But we shall not die,' she continued, raising her voice, and laughing
with the laugh which proclaims woman's victory; 'we shall live to love
each other. It is a tree of life, a tree whose shadow will make us
stronger, more perfect, more complete. You