It fell into a hollow as large as a washing basin which it had worn in the stone; then, falling in a cascade, hardly two feet high, it trickled across the footpath which it had carpeted with cresses, and was lost among the briers and grass on the raised shelf where the boulders were piled.
"Oh, I am so thirsty!" cried Mme.

Rosemilly.
But how could she drink?
She tried to catch the water in her hand, but it slipped away between her fingers.

Jean had an idea; he placed a stone on the path and on this she knelt down to put her lips to the spring itself, which was thus on the same level.
When she raised her head, covered with myriads of tiny drops, sprinkled all over her face, her hair, her eye-lashes, and her dress, Jean bent over her and murmured: "How pretty you look!" She answered in the tone in which she might have scolded a child: "Will you be quiet ?" These were the first words of flirtation they had ever exchanged.
"Come," said Jean, much agitated.

"Let us go on before they come up with us." For in fact they could see quite near them now Captain Beausire as he came down, backward, so as to give both hands to Mme.

Roland; and further up, further off, Roland still letting himself slip, lowering himself on his hams and clinging on with his hands and elbows at the speed of a tortoise, Pierre keeping in front of him to watch his movements.
The path, now less steep, was here almost a road, zigzagging between the huge rocks which had at some former time rolled from the hill-top.