mountains as if
they had stayed there in ambush to appear all at the same signal.

The ball-game had not yet been arranged and groups were disputing
violently when he reached the square. Quickly, he was surrounded, he was
welcomed, designated by acclamation to go into the game and sustain the
honor of his county. He did not dare, not having played for three years
and distrusting his unaccustomed arm. At last, he yielded and began
to undress--but to whom would he trust his waistcoat now?--The image
reappeared to him, suddenly, of Gracieuse, seated on the nearest steps
and extending her hands to receive it. To whom would he throw his
waistcoat to-day? It is intrusted ordinarily to some friend, as the
toreadors do with their gilt silk mantles.--He threw it at random, this
time, anywhere, on the granite of the old benches flowered with belated
scabwort--

The match began. Out of practice at first, uncertain, he missed several
times the little bounding thing which is to be caught in the air.

Then, he went to his work with a rage, regained his former ease and
became himself again superbly. His muscles had gained in strength what
they had perhaps lost in skill; again he was applauded, he knew the
physical intoxication of moving, of leaping, of feeling his muscles play
like supple and violent springs, of hearing around him the ardent murmur
of the crowd.

But then came the instant of rest which interrupts ordinarily the
long disputed games; the moment when one sits halting, the blood in
ebulition, the hands reddened, trembling,--and when one regains the
course of ideas which the game suppresses.

Then, he realized the distress of being alone.

Above the assembled heads, above the woolen caps and the hair ornamented
with kerchiefs, was accentuated that stormy sky which the southern
winds, when they are about to finish, bring always. The air had assumed
an absolute limpidity, as if it had become rarified, rarified unto
emptiness. The mountains seemed to have advanced extraordinarily; the
Pyrenees were crushing the village; the Spanish summits or the French
summits were there, all equally near, as if pasted on one another,
exaggerating their burned, brown colors, their intense and sombre,
violet tints. Large clouds, which seemed as solid as terrestrial
things, were displayed in the form of bows, veiling the sun, casting an
obscurity which was like an eclipse. And here and there, through some
rent, bordered with dazzling si