ed out on the garden. I tried to think, but my
ideas whirled round in my head like the snow-flakes, which looked as
though they were climbing up from the ground and falling from the sky
at the same time. And every time that I made an effort to think, the
only things I could think of were little bits of a song which the
children used to sing in the convent, and which ran--

The old girl jumped and jumped about
And jumped until she died.
The old girl jumped and jumped about
And jumped until she died.[1]

I felt less unhappy in this silent house. The softly falling snow was
pretty, and the trees were as beautiful as on that day when I had seen
them all in bloom. Then suddenly I remembered, quite clearly all that
had just happened. I saw Madame Deslois's hand with its square
fingers, and shivered all over. What an ugly hand it was, and what a
large one! Then I remembered the expression on M. Alphonse's face when
he took hold of my arm, and I remembered as I thought of it that I had
seen the same expression once before on a little girl's face. It was
one day when I had picked up a pear which had fallen from the tree.
She had rushed at me, saying, "Give me half of it, and I won't tell."

I felt so disgusted at the idea of sharing it with her that, although
Sister Marie-Aimee might have seen me, I had gone back to the tree and
put the pear down where it had fallen.

Thinking of all these things, I longed and longed to see Sister
Marie-Aimee again. I should have liked to have gone to her at once,
but I remembered that Henri Deslois had said as he went, "I shall see
you to-morrow." Perhaps he was at the farm already, waiting for me,
and wondering what had become of me. I went out of the house to run
back to Villevieille. I had only gone a few steps when I saw him
coming up. The white mare didn't find it very easy to climb the
snow-covered path. Henri Deslois was bareheaded, as he had been the
first time he came. His smock billowed out with the wind, and he had a
hand on the mane of the mare. The mare stood in front of me. Her
master leaned down and took my two hands which I held up to him. There
was on his face a look of worry which I had never seen before. I
noticed, too, that his eyebrows met, like those of Madame Deslois. He
was a little out of breath, and said, "I knew that I should find you
here." He opened his mouth again, and I felt quite certain that his
words were going to bring m