on." And then he went downstairs.

Jeanne did not go down till lunch-time; and the day passed exactly the
same as usual, without anything extraordinary happening. There was only
an extra man in the house.

* * * * *

V

Four days after the wedding, the berlin in which they were to travel to
Marseilles arrived. After the anguish of that first night, Jeanne soon
became accustomed to Julien's kisses and affectionate caresses, though
their more intimate relations still revolted her. When they went away
she had quite regained her gayety of heart, and the baroness was the
only one who showed any emotion at the parting. Just as the carriage was
going off, she put a heavy purse in her daughter's hand.

"That is for any little thing you may want to buy," she said.

Jeanne dropped it into her pocket and the carriage started.

"How much did your mother give you in that purse?" asked Julien in the
evening.

Jeanne had forgotten all about it, so she turned it out on her knees,
and found there were two thousand francs in gold.

"What a lot of things I shall be able to buy!" she cried, clapping her
hands.

At the end of a week they arrived at Marseilles, where the heat was
terrible, and the next day they embarked on the _Roi Louis_, the little
packet-boat which calls at Ajaccio on its way to Naples, and started for
Corsica. It seemed to Jeanne as if she were in a trance which yet left
her the full possession of all her senses, and she could hardly believe
she was really going to Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon, with its
wild undergrowth, its bandits, and its mountains. She and her husband
stood side by side on the deck of the boat watching the cliffs of
Provence fly past. Overhead was a bright blue sky, and the waves seemed
to be getting thicker and firmer under the burning heat of the sun.

"Do you remember when we went to Etretat in old Lastique's boat?" asked
Jeanne; and, instead of answering her, Julien dropped a kiss right on
her ear.

The steamer's paddles churned up the sea, and behind the boat, as far as
the eye could reach, lay a long foaming track where the troubled waves
frothed like champagne. All at once an immense dolphin leapt out of the
water a few fathoms ahead, and then dived in again head foremost. It
startled Jeanne, and she threw herself in Julien's arms with a little
cry of fear; then she laughed at her terror, and watched for the
reappearance of the enormous fish