sitors gradually
landward. He saw the various groups jump up and fly, carrying their
chairs with them, before the yellow waves as they rolled up edged with
a lace-like frill of foam. The bathing-machines too were being pulled up
by horses, and along the planked way which formed the promenade running
along the shore from end to end, there was now an increasing flow, slow
and dense, of well-dressed people in two opposite streams elbowing and
mingling. Pierre, made nervous and exasperated by this bustle, made his
escape into the town, and went to get his breakfast at a modest tavern
on the skirts of the fields.

When he had finished with coffee, he stretched his legs on a couple of
chairs under a lime-tree in front of the house, and as he had hardly
slept the night before, he presently fell into a doze. After resting for
some hours he shook himself, and finding that it was time to go on board
again he set out, tormented by a sudden stiffness which had come upon
him during his long nap. Now he was eager to be at home again; to know
whether his mother had found the portrait of Marechal. Would she be the
first to speak of it, or would he be obliged to ask for it again? If she
waited to be questioned further it must be because she had some secret
reason for not showing the miniature.

But when he was at home again, and in his room, he hesitated about going
down to dinner. He was too wretched. His revolted soul had not yet time
to calm down. However, he made up his mind to it, and appeared in the
dining-room just as they were sitting down.

All their faces were beaming.

"Well," said Roland, "are you getting on with your purchases? I do not
want to see anything till it is all in its place."

And his wife replied: "Oh, yes. We are getting on. But it takes much
consideration to avoid buying things that do not match. The furniture
question is an absorbing one."

She had spent the day in going with Jean to cabinet-makers and
upholsterers. Her fancy was for rich materials, rather splendid to
strike the eye at once. Her son, on the contrary, wished for something
simple and elegant. So in front of everything put before them they had
each repeated their arguments. She declared that a client, a defendant,
must be impressed; that as soon as he is shown into his counsel's
waiting-room he should have a sense of wealth.

Jean, on the other hand, wishing to attract only an elegant and opulent
class, was anxious to captivate persons o