all leisure, but, in a little villa, the grey eyes
and rounded figure of Eveline took on a value in his eyes. One day as
Hippolyte Ceres was fishing in the Aiselle, he made her sit beside him
on the Sofa of the Favourite. Long rays of gold struck Eveline like
arrows from a hidden Cupid through the chinks of the curtains which
protected her from the heat and glare of a brilliant day. Beneath her
white muslin dress her rounded yet slender form was outlined in its
grace and youth. Her skin was cool and fresh, and had the fragrance of
freshly mown hay. Paul Visire behaved as the occasion warranted, and for
her part, she was opposed neither to the games of chance or of society.
She believed it would be nothing or a trifle; she was mistaken.

"There was," says the famous German ballad, "on the sunny side of the
town square, beside a wall whereon the creeper grew, a pretty little
letter-box, as blue as the corn-flowers, smiling and tranquil.

"All day long there came to it, in their heavy shoes, small
shop-keepers, rich farmers, citizens, the tax-collector and the
policeman, and they put into it their business letters, their invoices,
their summonses their notices to pay taxes, the judges' returns, and
orders for the recruits to assemble. It remained smiling and tranquil.

"With joy, or in anxiety, there advanced towards it workmen and farm
servants, maids and nursemaids, accountants, clerks, and women carrying
their little children in their arms; they put into it notifications of
births, marriages, and deaths, letters between engaged couples, between
husbands and wives, from mothers to their sons, and from sons to their
mothers. It remained smiling and tranquil.

"At twilight, young lads and young girls slipped furtively to it, and
put in love-letters, some moistened with tears that blotted the ink,
others with a little circle to show the place to kiss, all of them very
long. It remained smiling and tranquil.

"Rich merchants came themselves through excess of carefulness at the
hour of daybreak, and put into it registered letters, and letters with
five red seals, full of bank notes or cheques on the great financial
establishments of the Empire. It remained smiling and tranquil.

"But one day, Gaspar, whom it had never seen, and whom it did not know
from Adam, came to put in a letter, of which nothing is known but that
it was folded like a little hat. Immediately the pretty letter-box fell
into a swoon. Henceforth it rema