A refusal, after the scene at noon, would have placed him in a ridiculous light before Anastasie.

'How hot and heavy is the evening, to be sure! I have always had a fancy to be a fish in summer, Jean-Marie, here in the Loing beside Gretz.

I should lie under a water-lily and listen to the bells, which must sound most delicately down below.

That would be a life--do you not think so too ?' 'Yes,' said Jean-Marie.
'Thank God you have imagination!' cried the Doctor, embracing the boy with his usual effusive warmth, though it was a proceeding that seemed to disconcert the sufferer almost as much as if he had been an English schoolboy of the same age.

'And now,' he added, 'I will take you to my wife.' Madame Desprez sat in the dining-room in a cool wrapper.