were performing gymnastic tricks. Heavy, limp, and
with scarlet faces, they hung awkwardly onto the iron rings, without
being able to raise themselves, while their shirts were continually
threatening to leave their trousers, and to flap in the wind like flags.

Meanwhile, the two boating-men had got their skiffs into the water, and
they came back, and politely asked the ladies whether they would like a
row.

"Would you like one, Monsieur Dufour?" his wife exclaimed,--"Please
come!"

He merely gave her a drunken look, without understanding what she said.
Then one of the rowers came up, with two fishing-rods in his hand; and
the hope of catching a gudgeon, that great aim of the Parisian
shop-keeper, made Dufour's dull eyes gleam, and he politely allowed them
to do whatever they liked, while he sat in the shade, under the bridge,
with his feet dangling over the river, by the side of the young man with
the yellow hair, who was sleeping soundly close to him.

One of the boating men made a martyr of himself and took the mother.

"Let us go to the little wood on the _Ile aux Anglias_!" he called out,
as he rowed off. The other skiff went slower, for the rower was looking
at his companion so intently, that he thought of nothing else, and his
emotion paralyzed his strength, while the girl, who was sitting on the
steerer's seat, gave herself up to the enjoyment of being on the water.
She felt disinclined to think, felt a lassitude in her limbs, and a
total abandonment of herself, as if she were intoxicated, and she had
become very flushed, and breathed shortly. The effects of the wine,
which were increased by the extreme heat, made all the trees on the bank
seem to bow, as she passed. A vague wish for enjoyment and a
fermentation for her blood, seemed to pervade her whole body, which was
excited by the heat of the day; and she was also agitated by this
_tete-a-tete_ on the water, in a place which seemed depopulated by the
heat, with this young man who thought her pretty, whose looks seemed to
caress her skin, and whose looks were as penetrating and pervading as
the sun's rays.

Their inability to speak, increased their emotion, and they looked about
them, but at last he made an effort and asked her name.

"Henriette," she said.

"Why! My name is Henri," he replied. The sound of their voices had
calmed them, and they looked at the banks. The other skiff had passed
them, and seemed to be waiting for them, and the rower cal