At last a peasant-girl, who was weeding the ground a few feet from him, attracted his attention.

It was in July, and the air was broiling, although the sun had already sank to the horizon.
The peasant-girl had taken off her jacket.

In a white bodice, with a coloured neckerchief tied over her shoulders, and the sleeves of her chemise turned up as far as her elbows, she was squatting amid the folds of her blue cotton skirt, which was secured to a pair of braces crossed behind her back.

She crawled about on her knees as she pulled up the tares and threw them into a basket.

The young man could only see her bare, sun-tanned arms stretching out right and left to seize some overlooked weed.