ring in fact that those machines
might do for bourgeois but were certainly not fit for well-behaved
girls. Well, one afternoon, when she had gone as usual into the fields,
her mother, returning from market, had perceived her on a deserted strip
of road, in company with little Gregoire Froment, another young wanderer
whom she often met in this wise, in spots known only to themselves. The
two made a very suitable pair, and were ever larking and rambling along
the paths, under the leaves, beside the ditches. But the abominable
thing was that, on this occasion, Gregoire, having seated Therese on
his own bicycle, was supporting her at the waist and running alongside,
helping her to direct the machine. Briefly it was a real bicycle lesson
which the little rascal was giving, and which the little hussy took with
all the pleasure in the world. When Therese returned home that evening
she had her ears soundly boxed for her pains.

"Where can that little gadabout have got to?" La Lepailleur continued
shouting. "One can no sooner take one's eyes off her than she runs
away."

Antonin, however, having peeped behind the booth containing the china
ornaments, lurched back again, still with his hands in his pockets, and
said with his vicious sneer: "Just look there, you'll see something."

And indeed, behind the booth, his mother again found Therese and
Gregoire together. The lad was holding his bicycle with one hand
and explaining some of the mechanism of it, while the girl, full of
admiration and covetousness, looked on with glowing eyes. Indeed she
could not resist her inclination, but laughingly let Gregoire raise her
in order to seat her for a moment on the saddle, when all at once her
mother's terrible voice burst forth: "You wicked hussy! what are you up
to there again? Just come back at once, or I'll settle your business for
you."

Then Mathieu also, catching sight of the scene, sternly summoned
Gregoire: "Please to place your wheel with the others. You know what I
have already said to you, so don't begin again."

It was war. Lepailleur impudently growled ignoble threats, which
fortunately were lost amid the strains of a barrel organ. And the
two families separated, going off in different directions through the
growing holiday-making crowd.

"Won't that train ever come, then?" resumed Rose, who with joyous
impatience was at every moment turning to glance at the clock of the
little railway station on the other side of the sq