en went all over the
country on horseback, for he had suddenly become very fond of riding.

The baron, his wife, and the vicomte, paid a visit to the Fourvilles
(whom Julien seemed to know very well, though no one at the chateau knew
exactly how the acquaintance had begun), and another duty call was paid
to the Brisevilles, and those two visits were the only break in their
dull, monotonous life.

One afternoon, about four o'clock, two people on horseback trotted up to
the chateau. Julien rushed into his wife's room in great excitement:

"Make haste and go down," he exclaimed. "Here are the Fourvilles. They
have come simply to make a neighborly call as they know the condition
you are in. Say I am out but that I shall be in soon. I am just going to
change my coat."

Jeanne went downstairs and found in the drawing-room a gigantic man with
big, red moustaches, and a pale, pretty woman with a sad-looking face,
sentimental eyes and hair of a dead gold that looked as if the sun had
never caressed it. When the fair-haired woman had introduced the big man
as her husband, she said:

"M. de Lamare, whom we have met several times, has told us how unwell
you are, so we thought we would not put off coming to see you any
longer. You see we have come on horseback, so you must look upon this
simply as a neighborly call; besides, I have already had the pleasure of
receiving a visit from your mother and the baron."

She spoke easily in a refined, familiar way, and Jeanne fell in love
with her at once. "In her I might, indeed, find a friend," she thought.

The Comte de Fourville, unlike his wife, seemed as much out of place in
a drawing-room as a bull in a china shop. When he sat down he put his
hat on a chair close by him, and then the problem of what he should do
with his hands presented itself to him. First he rested them on his
knees, then on the arms of his chair, and finally joined them as if in
prayer.

Julien came in so changed in appearance that Jeanne stared at him in
mute surprise. He had shaved himself and looked as handsome and charming
as when he was wooing her. His hair, just now so coarse and dull, had
been brushed and sprinkled with perfumed oil till it had recovered its
soft shining waves, and his large eyes, which seemed made to express
nothing but love, had their old winning look in them. He made himself as
amiable and fascinating as he had been before his marriage. He pressed
the hairy paw of the comte, who se