"How ?" he urged.
"I don't know--quite," she answered, a little pettishly.

"But I used to see Madame go off in the woods, and she would sit hour by hour, and listen to the waterfall, and talk to the birds, and at herself too; and more than once I saw her shut her hands--like that! You remember what tiny hands she had ?" (She glanced at her own brown ones unconsciously.) "And she spoke out, her eyes running with tears--and she all in pretty silks, and a colour like a rose.

She spoke out like this: 'Oh, if I could only do something, something, some big thing! What is all this silly coming and going to me, when I know, I know I might do it, if I had the chance! O Harry, Harry, can't you see!'" "Harry was her husband.

Ah, what a fisherman was he!" said Parpon, nodding.

"What did she mean by doing 'big things' ?" he added.
"How do I know ?" she asked fretfully.