and beautiful
life is!"

Time had not been lost on the lawn since the Beauchenes and Seguins
had gone off to visit the stables. First of all there had been a
distribution of the menu cards, which Charlotte had adorned with such
delicate water-color sketches. This surprise of hers had enraptured
them all at lunch, and they still laughed at the sight of those pretty
children's heads. Then, while the servants cleared the table, Gregoire
achieved a great success by offering the bride a bouquet of splendid
white roses, which he drew out of a bush where he had hitherto kept it
hidden. He had doubtless been waiting for some absence of his father's.
They were the roses of the mill; with Therese's assistance he must have
pillaged the bushes in the enclosure. Marianne, recognizing how serious
was the transgression, wished to scold him. But what superb white
roses they were, as big as cabbages, as he himself had said! And he was
entitled to triumph over them, for they were the only white roses there,
and had been secured by himself, like the wandering urchin he was with
a spice of knight-errantry in his composition, quite ready to jump over
walls and cajole damsels in order to deck a bride with snowy blooms.

"Oh! papa won't say anything," he declared, with no little
self-assurance; "they are far too beautiful."

This made the others laugh; but fresh emotion ensued, for Benjamin and
Guillaume awoke and screamed their hunger aloud. It was gayly remarked,
however, that they were quite entitled to their turn of feasting. And as
it was simply a family gathering there was no embarrassment on the part
of the mothers. Marianne took Benjamin on her knees in the shade of the
oak tree, and Charlotte placed herself with Guillaume on her right hand;
while, on her left, Andree seated herself with little Leonce, who had
been weaned a week previously, but was still very fond of caresses.

It was at this moment that the Beauchenes and the Seguins reappeared
with Mathieu, and stopped short, struck by the charm of the spectacle
before them. Between a framework of tall trees, under the patriarchal
oak, on the thick grass of the lawn the whole vigorous family was
gathered in a group, instinct with gayety, beauty, and strength. Gervais
and Claire, ever active, were, with Frederic, hurrying on the servants,
who made no end of serving the coffee on the table which had just been
cleared. For this table the three younger girls, half buried in a heap