ed. The better to attack it, they disfigure it. It is this proud
and noble grace that I want you to acquire. Look, it may be compared
with this diamond which I wear on my finger. The stone is absolutely
simple; and yet through how many hands has it passed before becoming so!
How many transformations has it undergone! How magnificent is its bare
simplicity when set off by the plain gold ring! It is the same with us.
For simplicity to be beautiful in us, we must have cut and polished our
soul and person many times over. Above all, we must have learnt the
harmony of things and become fixed in that knowledge, like the stone
which you see held in these gold claws."

She asked, with an effort to modulate her voice:

"Oughtn't I to take you for my model?"

"No, Rose! You frighten me when you say that! You must not think of it.
Listen to me: if ever we are permitted to imitate any one, it is only in
the pains which she herself takes to improve herself. As for me, I
wanted to achieve simplicity and I looked for it as one looks for a spot
that is difficult to reach and easy to miss. For a long time, I wandered
beyond it. Rather than stoop to false customs, to lying conventions, I
followed the strangest fancies.... Now it all makes me laugh."

"Makes you laugh?"

"Yes, past errors are dead branches that make our present life burn
more brightly. But, when I see how I judge my former selves, I become
suspicious as to what I may soon think of my actual self; and therefore
I do not wish you to take me as an example."

Rose was still lying in my arms; and her beautiful eyes were looking up
at me. I raised her head in my hands and whispered, tenderly:

"I feel that you understand me, that my words touch you, that you trust
me and that you love me deep down in your heart; I feel that you also
will soon be able to speak and unburden yourself freely, to be silent
amid silence and peaceful amid the peace of things...."

3

The girl rose to her feet, with a glint of emotion animating her
features; and, as though to escape my eyes, she took a few steps in the
garden. While she was hidden by the bend of the narrow path fenced by
the tall sunflowers, my heart was filled with misgiving: her step was so
heavy, so clumsy! Would she ever be able to improve her walk? Judging by
the ponderous rhythm of her hips, one would always think that she was
carrying invisible burdens at the end of each of her drooping arms....

But she soon return