beggars before the walls of the Alhambra. Little they
cared for the fever of success! Perhaps they were wise.

An almost complete solitude reigned over the Bois. Vaudrey saw, as he
glanced between the copsewood, now growing green, only a few isolated
pedestrians, some English governesses in charge of scampering children,
the dark green uniform of a guard or the blue blouse of a man who
trimmed the trees.

The coachman drove slowly and Sulpice, enjoying the intoxication of this
early sun, lowered the shade and breathed the keen air while he repeated
to himself that peaceful joy was within the reach of everybody at Paris.

"But why is this wood so deserted? It is so pleasant here."

He almost reproached himself for not having brought Adrienne. She would
have been so happy for this advanced spring day. She required so little
to make her smile: mere crumbs of joy. She was better than he.

He excused himself by reflecting that he would not have been able to
talk to Ramel.

And then it would have been necessary to talk to Adrienne, whereas the
joy of the present moment was this solitary silence, the bath of warm
air taken in the complete forgetfulness of the habitual existence.

The sight of the blue, gleaming lake before him, encircled with pines,
like an artificial Swiss lake, compelled him to look out of the window.

The coachman slowly drove the carriage to the left in order to make the
tour of the Lake.

Vaudrey looked at the sheet of water upon which the light played, and on
which two or three skiffs glided noiselessly, even the sound of their
oars not reaching his ears.

At the extremity of the alley, a carriage was standing, a hackney coach
whose driver was peacefully sleeping in the sunshine, with his head
leaning on his right shoulder, his broad-brimmed hat, bathed in the
sunshine, serving him as a shade.

It was the only carriage there, and a few paces from the border of the
water, standing out in dark relief against the violet-blue of the lake,
a woman stood surrounded by a group of ducks of all shades, running
after morsels of brown bread while uttering their hoarse cries.

Two white swans had remained in the water and looked at her with a
dignified air, at a distance.

At the first glance at this woman, Sulpice felt a strange emotion. His
legs trembled and his heart was agitated.

He could not be mistaken, he certainly recognized her. Either there was
an extraordinary resemblance between them, or