e
was too dark to enter the Boitelle family.

Antoine accordingly announced that on Sunday, the 22nd of May, the day
of his discharge, he would start for Tourteville with his sweetheart.

She had put on, for this journey to the house of her lover's parents,
her most beautiful and most gaudy clothes, in which yellow, red, and
blue were the prevailing colors, so that she had the appearance of one
adorned for a national fete.

At the terminus, as they were leaving Havre, people stared at her very
much, and Boitelle was proud of giving his arm to a person who
commanded so much attention. Then, in the third-class carriage, in
which she took a seat by his side, she excited so much astonishment
among the peasants that the people in the adjoining compartments got
up on their benches to get a look at her, over the wooden partition,
which divided the different portions of the carriage from one another.
A child, at sight of her, began to cry with terror, another concealed
his face in his mother's apron. Everything went off well, however, up
to their arrival at their destination. But, when the train slackened
its rate of motion as they drew near Yvetot, Antoine felt ill at ease,
as he would have done at an inspection when he did not know his
drill-practice. Then, as he put his head out through the carriage
door, he recognized, some distance away, his father who was holding
the bridle of the horse yoked to a car, and his mother who had made
her way to the railed portion of the platform where a number of
spectators had gathered.

He stepped out first, gave his hand to his sweetheart, and holding
himself erect, as if he were escorting a general, he advanced towards
his family.

The mother, on seeing this black lady, in variegated costume in her
son's company, remained so stupefied that she could not open her
mouth; and the father found it hard to hold the horse, which the
engine or the negress caused to rear for some time without stopping.
But Antoine, suddenly seized with the unmingled joy of seeing once
more the old people, rushed forward with open arms, embraced his
mother, embraced his father, in spite of the nag's fright, and then
turning towards his companion, at whom the passengers on the platform
stopped to stare with amazement, he proceeded to explain:

"Here she is! I told you that, at first sight, she is an odd piece;
but as soon as you know her, in very truth, there's not a better sort
in the whole world. Say good-