overcome all difficulties. Between them they were reason,
and health, and strength. If, too, they had always triumphed athwart
obstacles and tears, it was only by reason of their long agreement,
their common fealty amid an eternal renewal of their love, whose
armor rendered them invincible. They could not be conquered, they had
conquered by the very power of their union without designing it. And
they ended heroically, as conquerors of happiness, hand in hand, pure
as crystal is, very great, very handsome, the more so from their extreme
age, their long, long life, which one love had entirely filled. And the
sole strength of their innumerable offspring now gathered there, the
conquering tribe that had sprung from their loins, was the strength of
union inherited from them: the loyal love transmitted from ancestors to
children, the mutual affection which impelled them to help one another
and ever fight for a better life in all brotherliness.

But mirthful sounds arose, the banquet was at last being served. All the
servants of the farm had gathered to discharge this duty--they would not
allow a single person from without to help them. Nearly all had grown up
on the estate, and belonged, as it were, to the family. By and by they
would have a table for themselves, and in their turn celebrate the
diamond wedding. And it was amid exclamations and merry laughter that
they brought the first dishes.

All at once, however, the serving ceased, silence fell, an unexpected
incident attracted all attention. A young man, whom none apparently
could recognize, was stepping across the lawn, between the arms of the
horse-shoe table. He smiled gayly as he walked on, only stopping when
he was face to face with Mathieu and Marianne. Then in a loud voice
he said: "Good day, grandfather! good day, grandmother! You must have
another cover laid, for I have come to celebrate the day with you."

The onlookers remained silent, in great astonishment. Who was this young
man whom none had ever seen before? Assuredly he could not belong to the
family, for they would have known his name, have recognized his face?
Why, then, did he address the ancestors by the venerated names of
grandfather and grandmother? And the stupefaction was the greater by
reason of his extraordinary resemblance to Mathieu. Assuredly, he was a
Froment, he had the bright eyes and the lofty tower-like forehead of
the race. Mathieu lived again in him, such as he appeared in
a piously-