tle woman. Her dress was
loose to give freedom to her movements, and to cover her head she
had found an enormous garden hat of coarse yellow straw with an
extravagantly broad brim; and to this, a bunch of tamarisk pinned in to
cock it on one side, gave a very dashing and military effect.

Jean, since he had come into his fortune, had asked himself every day
whether or no he should marry her. Each time he saw her he made up his
mind to ask her to be his wife, and then, as soon as he was alone again,
he considered that by waiting he would have time to reflect. She was now
less rich than he, for she had but twelve thousand francs a year; but it
was in real estate, in farms and lands near the docks in Havre; and
this by-and-bye might be worth a great deal. Their fortunes were
thus approximately equal, and certainly the young widow attracted him
greatly.

As he watched her walking in front of him that day he said to himself:

"I must really decide; I cannot do better, I am sure."

They went down a little ravine, sloping from the village to the cliff,
and the cliff, at the end of this comb, rose about eighty metres above
the sea. Framed between the green slopes to the right and left, a great
triangle of silvery blue water could be seen in the distance, and a
sail, scarcely visible, looked like an insect out there. The sky, pale
with light, was so merged into one with the water that it was impossible
to see where one ended and the other began; and the two women, walking
in front of the men, stood out against the bright background, their
shapes clearly defined in their closely-fitting dresses.

Jean, with a sparkle in his eye, watched the smart ankle, the neat leg,
the supple waist, and the coquettish broad hat of Mme. Rosemilly as they
fled away from him. And this flight fired his ardour, urging him on to
the sudden determination which comes to hesitating and timid natures.
The warm air, fragrant with sea-coast odours--gorse, clover, and thyme,
mingling with the salt smell of the rocks at low tide--excited him still
more, mounting to his brain; and every moment he felt a little more
determined, at every step, at every glance he cast at the alert figure;
he made up his mind to delay no longer, to tell her that he loved her
and hoped to marry her. The prawn-fishing would favour him by affording
him an opportunity; and it would be a pretty scene too, a pretty spot
for love-making--their feet in a pool of limpid water while th