and treat us like fore-top men on board a ship. Well, from my office I
could see a small bit of blue sky and the swallows, and I felt inclined
to dance among my portfolios.

"My yearning for freedom grew so intense, that, in spite of my
repugnance, I went to see my chief, who was a short, bad-tempered man,
who was always in a rage. When I told him that I was not well, he looked
at me, and said: 'I do not believe it, Monsieur, but be off with you! Do
you think that any office can go on, with clerks like you?' I started at
once, and went down the Seine. It was a day like this, and I took the
_mouche_, to go as far as Saint Cloud. Ah! What a good thing it would
have been if my chief had refused me permission to leave the office for
the day!

"I seemed to myself to expand in the sun. I loved it all; the steamer,
the river, the trees, the houses, my fellow-passengers, everything. I
felt inclined to kiss something, no matter what; it was love, laying its
snare. Presently, at the Trocadéro, a girl, with a small parcel in her
hand, came on board and sat down opposite to me. She was certainly
pretty; but it is surprising, Monsieur, how much prettier women seem to
us when it is fine, at the beginning of the spring. Then they have an
intoxicating charm, something quite peculiar about them. It is just like
drinking wine after the cheese.

"I looked at her, and she also looked at me, but only occasionally, like
that girl did at you, just now; but at last, by dint of looking at each
other constantly, it seemed to me that we knew each other well enough to
enter into conversation, and I spoke to her, and she replied. She was
decidedly pretty and nice, and she intoxicated me, Monsieur!