hath she repaid thee for the log-fire of her churching-day!

"Therese! Awhile ago you were a magpie; now you are becoming a
tortoise! Come and give some water to these Parmese violets."




Part II -- The Daughter of Clementine





Chapter I -- The Fairy


When I left the train at the Melun station, night had already spread
its peace over the silent country. The soil, heated through all the
long day by a strong sun--by a "gros soleil," as the harvesters of
the Val de Vire say--still exhaled a warm heavy smell. Lush dense
odours of grass passed over the level of the fields. I brushed
away the dust of the railway carriage, and joyfully inhaled the pure
air. My travelling-bag--filled by my housekeeper wit linen and
various small toilet articles, munditiis, seemed so light in my
hand that I swung it about just as a schoolboy swings his strapped
package of rudimentary books when the class is let out.

Would to Heaven that I were again a little urchin at school! But it
is fully fifty years since my good dead mother made me some tartines