He had come intentionally without a hat.

He now went to the deep pool he had long selected, and glided into it resolutely, trying to make as little noise as possible, and, in fact, making scarcely any.
When, at half-past nine o'clock, Madame Granson returned home, her servant said nothing of Athanase, but gave her a letter.

She opened it and read these few words,-- "My good mother, I have departed; don't be angry with me." "A pretty trick he has played me!" she thought.

"And his linen! and the money! Well, he will write to me, and then I'll follow him.

These poor children think they are so much cleverer than their fathers and mothers." And she went to bed in peace.
During the preceding morning the Sarthe had risen to a height foreseen by the fisherman.