. And one entered,
as into the liquid crystal of a source, a greenish limpidity, a sheet
of silver reposing beneath reflected reeds. Colours, perfumes, sounds,
quivers, all were vague, indeterminate, transparent, steeped in a
felicity amidst which everything seemed to faint away. Languorous
warmth, the glimmer of a summer's night, as it fades on the bare
shoulder of some fair girl, a scarce perceptible murmur of love sinking
into silence, lingered beneath the motionless branches, unstirred by the
slightest zephyr. It was hymeneal solitude, a chamber where Nature lay
hidden in the embraces of the sun.

Albine and Serge stood there in an ecstasy of joy. As soon as the tree
had received them beneath its shade, they felt eased of all the anxious
disquiet which had so long distressed them. The fears which had made
them avoid each other, the fierce wrestling of spirit which had torn
and wounded them, without consciousness on their part of what they were
really contending against, vanished, and left them in perfect peace.
Absolute confidence, supreme serenity, now pervaded them, they yielded
unhesitatingly to the joy of being together in that lonely nook,
so completely hidden from the outside world. They had surrendered
themselves to the garden, they awaited in all calmness the behests of
that tree of life. It enveloped them in such ecstasy of love that the
whole clearing seemed to disappear from before their eyes, and to leave
them wrapped in an atmosphere of perfume.

'The air is like ripe fruit,' murmured Albine.

And Serge whispered in his turn: 'The grass seems so full of life and
motion, that I could almost think I was treading on your dress.'

It was a kind of religious feeling which made them lower their voices.
No sentiment of curiosity impelled them to raise their heads and scan
the tree. The consciousness of its majesty weighed heavily upon them.
With a glance Albine asked whether she had overrated the enchantment of
the greenery, and Serge answered her with two tears that trickled
down his cheeks. The joy that filled them at being there could not be
expressed in words.

'Come,' she whispered in his ear, in a voice that was softer than a
sigh.

And she glided on in front of him, and seated herself at the very foot
of the tree. Then, with a fond smile, she stretched out her hands to
him; while he, standing before her, grasped them in his own with a
responsive smile. Then she drew him slowly towards her and he