bright as the clear morning itself.

Suddenly, looking as if the cliff bestrode part of the sea, appeared the
great arcades of Etretat, high enough for a ship to pass underneath him
without the point of a sharp white rock rising out of the water before
the first one.

When they reached the shore, the vicomte lifted Jeanne out that she
should not wet her feet in landing, while the baron held the boat close
to the beach with a rope; then they went up the steep, shingly beach
side by side, both agitated by this short embrace, and they heard old
Lastique say to the baron:

"In my opinion they'd make a very handsome couple."

They had lunch in a little inn near the beach. On the sea they had been
quiet, but at the table they had as much to say as children let out of
school.

The most simple things gave rise to endless laughter. Old Lastique
carefully put his pipe, which was still alight, into his cap before he
sat down to table; and everyone laughed. A fly, attracted, no doubt, by
the sailor's red nose, persisted on settling on it, and when moving too
slowly to catch it he knocked it away, it went over to a very
fly-spotted curtain whence it seemed to eagerly watch the sailor's
highly-colored nasal organ, for it soon flew back and settled on it
again.

Each time the insect returned a loud laugh burst out, and when the old
man, annoyed by its tickling, murmured: "What a confoundly obstinate
fly!" Jeanne and the vicomte laughed till they cried, holding their
serviettes to their mouths to prevent themselves shrieking out loud.

When the coffee had been served Jeanne said:

"Suppose we go for a walk?"

The vicomte got up to go with her, but the baron preferred going out on
the beach to take his nap.

"You two go," he said. "You will find me here in an hour's time."

They walked straight along the road, passed a few cottages and a little
chateau which looked more like a big farm, and then found themselves in
an open valley. Jeanne had a singing in her ears, and was thrilled by a
strange sensation which she had never before experienced. Overhead was a
blazing sun, and on each side of the road lay fields of ripe corn
drooping under the heat. The feeble, continuous chirp of the swarms of
grasshoppers in the corn and hedges was the only sound to be heard, and
the sky of dazzling blue, slightly tinged with yellow, looked as though
it would suddenly turn red, like brass when it is put into a furnace.

They entered a lit