We continue our walk, and turn into a footpath where are high, dusty
bushes and the noises are subdued. The sunshine blazes everywhere;
it heats and roasts the hollow of the way, spreading blinding and
burning whiteness in patches, and shimmers in the sky of faultless
blue.

At the first turning, almost before we had heard the light grating
of a footstep, we are face to face with Eudoxie!

Lamuse utters a deep exclamation. Perhaps he fancies once more that
she is looking for him, and believes that she is the gift of his
destiny. He goes up to her--all the bulk of him.

She looks at him and stops, framed by the hawthorn. Her strangely
slight and pale face is apprehensive, the lids tremble on her
magnificent eyes. She is bareheaded, and in the hollowed neck of her
linen corsage there is the dawning of her flesh. So near, she is
truly enticing in the sunshine, this woman crowned with gold, and
one's glance is impelled and astonished by the moon-like purity of
her skin. Her eyes sparkle; her teeth, too, glisten white in the
living wound of her half-open mouth, red as her heart.

"Tell me--I am going to tell you "pants Lamuse. "I like you so
much--" He outstretches his arm towards the motionless, beloved
wayfarer.

She starts, and replies to him, "Leave me alone--you disgust me!"

The man's hand is thrown over one of her little ones. She tries to
draw it back, and shakes it to free herself. Her intensely fair hair