were clusters of them all along the lawns, on the trees, in the
shrubbery. The fine gravel of the avenues, the waves of the river,
seemed to emit green sparks, and all those microscopic flashes formed a
sort of holiday illumination in which Savigny seemed to be enveloped in
her honor, to celebrate the betrothal of Georges and Sidonie.

When she rose the next day, her plan was formed. Georges loved her; that
was certain. Did he contemplate marrying her? She had a suspicion that
he did not, the clever minx! But that did not frighten her. She felt
strong enough to triumph over that childish nature, at once weak and
passionate. She had only to resist him, and that is exactly what she
did.

For some days she was cold and indifferent, wilfully blind and devoid of
memory. He tried to speak to her, to renew the blissful moment, but she
avoided him, always placing some one between them.

Then he wrote to her.

He carried his notes himself to a hollow in a rock near a clear spring
called "The Phantom," which was in the outskirts of the park, sheltered
by a thatched roof. Sidonie thought that a charming episode. In the
evening she must invent some story, a pretext of some sort for going to
"The Phantom" alone. The shadow of the trees across the path, the
mystery of the night, the rapid walk, the excitement, made her heart beat
deliciously. She would find the letter saturated with dew, with the
intense cold of the spring, and so white in the moonlight that she would
hide it quickly for fear of being surprised.

And then, when she was alone, what joy to open it, to decipher those