f he
wanted to sink into the earth, laughing and joking all the while.

'Oh, beneficent earth, take me unto thee, thou who art our common
mother, our only source of life! thou the eternal, the immortal one, in
whom circulates the soul of the world, the sap that spreads even into
the stones, and makes the trees themselves our big, motionless brothers!
Yes, I wish to lose myself in thee; it is thou that I feel beneath my
limbs, clasping and inflaming me; thou alone shalt appear in my work
as the primary force, the means and the end, the immense ark in which
everything becomes animated with the breath of every being!'

Though begun as mere pleasantry, with all the bombast of lyrical
emphasis, the invocation terminated in a cry of ardent conviction,
quivering with profound poetical emotion, and Sandoz's eyes grew moist;
and, to hide how much he felt moved, he added, roughly, with a sweeping
gesture that took in the whole scene around:

'How idiotic it is! a soul for every one of us, when there is that big
soul there!'

Claude, who had disappeared amid the grass, had not stirred. After a
fresh spell of silence he summed up everything:

'That's it, old boy! Run them through, all of them. Only you'll get
trounced.'

'Oh,' said Sandoz, rising up and stretching himself, 'my bones are too
hard. They'll smash their own wrists. Let's go back; I don't want to
miss the train.'

Christine had taken a great liking to him, seeing him so robust and
upright in his doings, and she plucked up courage at last to ask a
favour of him: that of standing godfather to Jacques. True, she never
set foot in church now, but why shouldn't the lad be treated according
to custom? What influenced her above all was the idea of giving the boy
a protector in this godfather, whom she found so serious and sensible,
even amidst the exuberance of his strength. Claude expressed surprise,
but gave his consent with a shrug of the shoulders. And the christening
took place; they found a godmother, the daughter of a neighbour, and
they made a feast of it, eating a lobster, which was brought from Paris.

That very day, as they were saying good-bye, Christine took Sandoz
aside, and said, in an imploring voice:

'Do come again soon, won't you? He is bored.'

In fact, Claude had fits of profound melancholy. He abandoned his work,
went out alone, and prowled in spite of himself about Faucheur's inn,
at the spot where the ferry-boat landed its passengers, as if