sometimes at the slow and lazy flight of a gull, with its short,
white wings, sailing in the blue heavens, sometimes at the green
sea, or at the brown sails of a fishing bark. In short, I had
passed a happy day, a day of listlessness and of liberty.

"I was shown a little farmhouse, where travelers were put up, a
kind of inn, kept by a peasant, which stood in the center of a
Norman court, surrounded by a double row of beeches.

"Quitting the Falaise. I gained the hamlet, which was hemmed in
by great trees, and I presented myself at the house of Mother
Lecacheur.

"She was an old, wrinkled, and austere rustic, who always seemed
to yield to the pressure of new customs with a kind of contempt.

"It was the month of May: the spreading apple-trees covered the
court with a whirling shower of blossoms which rained unceasingly
both upon people and upon the grass.

"I said:

" 'Well, Madame Lecacheur, have you a room for me?'

"Astonished to find that I knew her name, she answered:

" 'That depends; everything is let; but, all the same, there will
be no harm in looking.'

"In five minutes we were in perfect accord, and I deposited my