Nor was the Countess the only one whose face glowed, being set southwards, or whose heart pulsed to the rhythm of the horses' hoofs that beat out "Home!" Carlat's and Madame Carlat's also.

Javette even, hearing from her neighbour that they were over the Loire, plucked up courage; while La Tribe, gazing before him with moistened eyes, cried "Comfort" to the scared and weeping girl who clung to his belt.

It was singular to see how all sniffed the air as if already it smacked of the sea and of the south; and how they of Poitou sat their horses as if they asked nothing better than to ride on and on and on until the scenes of home arose about them.

For them the sky had already a deeper blue, the air a softer fragrance, the sunshine a purity long unknown.
Was it wonderful, when they had suffered so much on that northern bank?
When their experience during the month had been comparable only with the direst nightmare?
Yet one among them, after the first impulse of relief and satisfaction, felt differently.

Tignonville's gorge rose against the sense of compulsion, of inferiority.