nd hands icy cold. Amid the
exclamations of surprise which greeted them, they complained of the
folly that had possessed them to venture out of Paris in such bleak
weather.

"Just fancy, my dear fellow," said Beauchene, "we haven't seen a single
duck! It's no doubt too cold. And you can't imagine what a bitter
wind blows on the plateau, amid those ponds and bushes bristling with
icicles. So we gave up the idea of any shooting. You must give us each a
glass of hot wine, and then we'll get back to Paris."

Seguin, who was in even a worse humor, stood before the fire trying to
thaw himself; and while Marianne made haste to warm some wine, he began
to speak of the cleared fields which he had skirted. Under the icy
covering, however, beneath which they stiffly slumbered, hiding the
seed within them, he had guessed nothing of the truth, and already felt
anxious about this business of Mathieu's, which looked anything but
encouraging. Indeed, he already feared that he would not be paid his
purchase money, and so made bold to speak ironically.

"I say, my dear fellow, I am afraid you have lost your time," he began;
"I noticed it all as I went by, and it did not seem promising. But how
can you hope to reap anything from rotten soil in which only reeds have
been growing for centuries?"

"One must wait," Mathieu quietly answered. "You must come back and see
it all next June."

But Beauchene interrupted them. "There is a train at four o'clock, I
think," said he; "let us make haste, for it would annoy us tremendously
to miss it, would it not, Seguin?"

So saying, he gave him a gay, meaning glance. They had doubtless planned
some little spree together, like husbands bent on availing themselves to
the utmost of the convenient pretext of a day's shooting. Then, having
drunk some wine and feeling warmed and livelier, they began to express
astonishment at their surroundings.

"It stupefies me, my dear fellow," declared Beauchene, "that you can
live in this awful solitude in the depth of winter. It is enough to kill
anybody. I am all in favor of work, you know; but, dash it! one must
have some amusement too."

"But we do amuse ourselves," said Mathieu, waving his hand round that
rustic kitchen in which centred all their pleasant family life.

The two visitors followed his gesture, and gazed in amazement at the
walls covered with utensils, at the rough furniture, and at the table
on which the children were still building their vi