will see that all will now go
happily. Some blessed joy will assuredly descend on us from heaven! Will
you come?'

His face paled, and his eyelids quivered, as though too powerful a light
were suddenly beating against them.

'Will you come? will you come?' she cried again, yet more passionately,
and already half rising to her feet.

He sprang up and followed her, at first with tottering steps and then
with his arm thrown round her waist, as if he could endure no separation
from her. He went where she went, carried along in the warm fragrance
that streamed from her hair. And as he thus remained slightly in the
rear, she turned upon him a face so radiant with love, such tempting
lips and eyes, which so imperiously bade him follow, that he would have
gone with her anywhere, trusting and unquestioning, like a dog.

XV

They went down and out into the garden without the smile fading from
Serge's face. All that he saw of the greenery around him was such as was
reflected in the clear depths of Albine's eyes. As they approached, the
garden smiled and smiled again, a murmur of content sped from leaf to
leaf and from bough to bough to the furthest depths of the avenues. For
days and days the garden must have been hoping and expecting to see them
thus, clinging to one another, making their peace again with the trees
and searching for their lost love on the grassy banks. A solemn warning
breath sighed through the branches; the afternoon sky was drowsy with
heat; the plants raised their bowing heads to watch them pass.

'Listen,' whispered Albine. 'They drop into silence as we come near
them; but over yonder they are expecting us, they are telling each other
the way they must lead us.... I told you we should have no trouble about
the paths, the trees themselves will direct us with their spreading
arms.'

The whole park did, indeed, appear to be impelling them gently onward.
In their rear it seemed as if a barrier of brush-wood had bristled up
to prevent them from retracing their steps; while, in front of them, the
grassy lawns spread out so invitingly, that they glided along the soft
slopes, without thought of choosing their way.

'And the birds are coming with us, too,' said Albine. 'It is the tomtits
this time. Don't you see them? They are skimming over the hedges, and
they stop at each turning to see that we don't lose our way.' Then she
added: 'All the living things of the park are with us. Can't you hear
them?