room was adorned, behind her, and so had carried it off
under her petticoat.

The parents were sentenced to many years' imprisonment, and being let
loose to live as best she could, the girl became a servant, passed from
hand to hand, inherited some property from an old farmer, whom she had
caught, as if she had been a thrush on a twig covered with bird-lime,
and with the money she had built this public-house on the new road which
was being built across the Capsir.

"A regular bad one, Monsieur," the coachman said in conclusion, "a vixen
such as one does not see now in the worst garrison towns, and who would
open the door to the whole fraternity, and not at all avaricious, but
thoroughly honest...."

I interrupted him in spite of myself, as if his words had pained me, and
I thought of those pale green eyes, those magic eyes, eyes to be dreamt
about, which were the color of grasshoppers, and I looked for them, and
saw them in the darkness; they danced before me like phosphorescent
lights, and I would have given then the whole contents of my purse to
that man if he would only have been silent and urged his horses on to
full speed, so that their mad gallop might carry me off quickly, quickly
and far, and continually further from that girl.

THE MARQUIS

It was quite useless to expostulate when that obstinate little Sonia,
with a Russian name and Russian caprices, had said: "I choose to do it."
She was so delicate and pretty also, with her slightly turned-up nose,
and her rosy and childish cheeks, while every female perversity was
reflected in the depths of her strange eyes, which were the color of the
sea on a stormy evening. Yes, she was very charming, very fantastic, and
above all, so Russian, so deliciously and imperiously Russian, and all
the more Russian, as she came from Montmarte, and in spite of this, not
one of her seven lovers who composed her usual menagerie had laughed
when their enslaver said one day:

"You know my feudal castle at Pludun-Herlouet, near Saint
Jacut-de-la-Mer, which I bought two years ago, and in which I have not
yet set foot? Very well, then! The day after to-morrow, which is the
first of May, we will have a house-warming there."

The seven had not asked for any further explanation, but had accompanied
little Sonia, and were now ready to sit down to dinner under her
presidency in the dining-room of the old castle, which was situated ten
hours from Paris. They had arrived there