I could not bear to go home and see them all with the knowledge in my heart of what I intended to do.

When I got near to the orchard, which was about a quarter of a mile from the house, I felt, with all my feelings together, as if I could go no farther.

The storm seemed to be passing over--for some minutes there had been no lightning or thunder.
"'Perhaps after all it will only skirt round about us,' I said.

And as I thought this I entered the orchard and sat down on my own seat, a little bench that--now many years ago--the bon papa had placed for me with his own hands beside my pommier.
"I was so tired and so hot and so unhappy, I sat and cried.
"'I wish I had not said I would go,' I thought.

'Now if I change one will mock so at me.' "I leaned my head against the trunk of my tree.