unfolded to him. Yes, actually, led on by ennui and solitude, I had
gradually arrived at dreaming of and looking forward to this absurd
marriage. And then, above all, to live for awhile on land, in some
shady nook, amid trees and flowers. How tempting it sounded after the
long months we had been wasting at the Pescadores (hot and arid
islands, devoid of freshness, woods, or streamlets, full of faint
odors of China and of death).


We had made great way in latitude, since our vessel had quitted that
Chinese furnace, and the constellations in the sky had undergone a
series of rapid changes; the Southern Cross had disappeared at the
same time as the other austral stars; and the Great Bear rising on the
horizon, was almost on as high a level as it is in the French sky. The
fresh evening breeze soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the
memory of our summer night watches on the coast of Brittany.

What a distance we were, however, from those familiar coasts! What a
terrible distance!




MADAME CHRYSANTHEME




MADAME CHRYSANTHEME