r, murmured:

"It is too fine for any man. One would think that God was coming."

The feeling of the devout old peasant woman was much the same as that
vaguely experienced by all those people who had assembled on the roads
as if to watch the passage of a colossal procession on Corpus Christi,
and who were reminded by that visit of an Oriental prince to a child of
the province, of the legends of the Magian kings, the arrival of
Gaspard the Moor bringing to the carpenter's son the myrrh and the
crown.

Amid the heartfelt congratulations that were showered on Jansoulet,
Cardailhac, who had not been seen since morning, suddenly appeared,
triumphant and perspiring.

"Didn't I tell you that there was something to work with! Eh? Isn't
this _chic_? There's a grouping for you! I fancy our Parisians would
pay something handsome to attend a first performance like this."

He lowered his voice because the mother was close by:

"Have you seen our Arles girls? No, look at them more carefully--the
first one, the one standing in front to offer the bouquet."

"Why, that's Amy Ferat!"

"_Parbleu!_ you can see yourself, my dear fellow, that if the bey
throws his handkerchief into that bevy of pretty girls, there must be
at least one who knows enough to pick it up. Those innocent creatures
wouldn't know what it meant! Oh! I have thought of everything, you'll
see. It's all mounted and arranged as if it were on the stage. Farm
side, garden side."

At that point, to give an idea of the perfectness of his organization,
the manager raised his cane; his gesture was instantly repeated from
end to end of the park, with the result that all the musical societies,
all the trumpets, all the tambourines burst forth in unison in the
majestic strains of the familiar song of the South: _Grand Soleil de
la Provence_. The voices, the brazen notes ascended into the light,
swelling the folds of the banners, giving the signal to the dancers of
the _farandole_, who began to sway back and forth, to go through their
first antics where they stood, while, on the other side of the river, a
murmur ran through the crowd like a breeze, caused doubtless by the
fear that the bey had arrived unexpectedly from another direction. A
second gesture from the manager and the great orchestra subsided, more
gradually, with _rallentando_ passages and meteoric showers of notes
scattered among the foliage; but nothing better could be expected from
a company of three thousa