There is no need of many words at any time between us two; I know
exactly now, by his tone, by his great good-humored smile, how the
case stands; I understand all that lies in the little phrase: "That's
just it, she is your wife." If she were not, well then he could not
answer for what might happen,--notwithstanding any remorse he might
have in the depths of his heart, since he is no longer a bachelor and
free as air, as in former days. But he considers her my wife, and she
is sacred. I have the fullest faith in his word, and I experience a
positive relief, a real joy, at finding my staunch Yves of bygone
days. How could I have so succumbed to the demeaning influence of my
surroundings as to suspect him even, and invent for myself such a
mean, petty anxiety?

We will never even mention that doll again.

We remain up there very late, talking of other things, gazing the
while at the immense depths below our feet, at the valleys and
mountains as they become one by one indistinct and lost in the
deepening darkness. Placed as we are at an enormous height, in the
wide free atmosphere, we seem already to have quitted this miniature
country, already to be freed from the impression of littleness which
it has given us, and from the little links by which it was beginning
to bind us to itself.

Seen from such heights as these, all the countries of the globe bear a
strong resemblance to each other; they lose the imprint made upon them
by man, and by races; by all the atoms swarming on the surface.

As of old, in the Breton marshes, in the woods of Toulven, or at sea
in the night-watches, we talk of all those things to which thoughts