waddled in; he was no longer the little pig of former days--pink
as a newly painted toy, with a tiny little tail, like a bit of string;
but a fat wobbling creature, fit to be killed, with a belly as round
as a monk's, and a back all bristling with rough hairs, that reeked of
fatness. His stomach had grown quite yellow from his habit of sleeping
on the manure heap. Waddling along on his shaky feet, he charged with
lowered snout at the scared fowls, and so left Desiree at liberty to
escape, and take the rabbits the few scraps of green stuff which she had
so strenuously defended. When she came back, all was peace again. The
stupid, ecstatic-looking geese were lazily swaying their long necks
about, the ducks and turkeys were waddling in ungainly fashion alongside
the wall; the fowls were quietly clucking and peaking at invisible
grains on the hard ground of the stable; while the pig, the goat, and
the big cow, were drowsily blinking their eyes, as though they were
falling asleep. Outside it had just begun to rain.

'Ah! well, there's a shower coming on!' cried Desiree, throwing herself
down on the straw. 'You had better stay where you are, my dears, if you
don't want to get soaked.'

Then she turned to Albine and added: 'How stupid they all look, don't
they? They only wake up just to eat!'

Albine still remained silent. The merry laughter of that buxom girl
as she struggled amidst those greedy necks and gluttonous beaks, which
tickled and kissed her, and seemed bent on devouring her very flesh, had
rendered the unhappy daughter of the Paradou yet paler than she had been
before. So much gaiety, so much vitality, so much boisterous health made
her despair. She strained her feverish arms to her desolate bosom, which
desertion had parched.

'And Serge?' she asked again, in the same clear, stubborn voice.

'Hush!' said Desiree. 'I heard him just now. He hasn't finished yet----
We have been making a pretty disturbance; La Teuse must surely have
grown deaf this afternoon---- Let us keep quiet now. I like to hear the
rain fall.'

The shower beat in at the open doorway, casting big drops upon the
threshold. The restless fowls, after venturing out for a moment, had
quickly retreated to the far end of the stable; where, indeed, with the
exception of three ducks who remained quietly walking in the rain, all
the pets had now taken refuge, clustering round the girl's skirts. It
was growing very warm amongst the straw. Desiree pulle