ate if it did not know its owner."

"How good you are, and how much I love you!"

"Oh! I, too, dear Leon, I love you dearly."

She stood the rake against a tree, and hung upon the arm of her intended
husband with that supple and languishing grace, the secret of which the
creoles possess.

"Come this way," said she, "so that I can show you all the improvements
we have made in the garden."

Leon admired everything she wanted him to. The fact is that he had eyes
for nothing but her. The grotto of Polyphemus and the cave of Caecus
would have appeared to him pleasanter than the gardens of Armida, if
Clementine's little red jacket had been promenading in them.

He asked her if she did not feel some regret in leaving so charming a
retreat, and one which she had embellished with so much care.

"Why?" asked she, without thinking to blush. "We will not go far off,
and, besides, won't we come here every day?"

The coming marriage was a thing so well settled, that it had not even
been spoken of on the previous evening. Nothing remained to be done but
to publish the bans and fix the date. Clementine, simple and honest
heart, expressed herself without any false modesty concerning an event
so entirely expected, so natural and so agreeable. She had expressed her
tastes to Mme. Renault in the arrangement of the new apartments, and
chosen the hangings herself; and she no longer made any ceremony in
talking with her intended of the happy life in common which was about
beginning for them, of the people they would invite to the marriage
ceremony, of the wedding calls to be made afterwards, of the day which
should be appropriated for receptions and of the time they would devote
to each other's society and to work. She inquired in regard to the
occupation which Leon intended to make for himself, and the hours which,
of preference, he would give to study. This excellent little woman would
have been ashamed to bear the name of a sloth, and unhappy in passing
her days with an idler. She promised Leon in advance, to respect his
work as a sacred thing. On her part she thoroughly intended to make her
time also of use, and not to live with folded arms. At the start she
would take charge of the housekeeping, under the direction of Madame
Renault, who was beginning to find it a little burdensome. And then
would she not soon have children to care for, bring up and educate? This
was a noble and useful pleasure which she did not intend to share w