ir feet, in some village across the road; and the other far-off and
faint, responding, as it were, with distant sobs to the feverish plaints
of the first. One might have thought that these bells were recounting to
each other, through the empty waste, the sinister story of a perishing
world.

Miette and Silvere, warmed by their quick march, did not at first feel
the cold. They remained silent, listening in great dejection to the
sounds of the tocsin, which made the darkness quiver. They could not
even see one another. Miette felt frightened, and, seeking for Silvere's
hand, clasped it in her own. After the feverish enthusiasm which for
several hours had carried them along with the others, this sudden halt
and the solitude in which they found themselves side by side left them
exhausted and bewildered as though they had suddenly awakened from a
strange dream. They felt as if a wave had cast them beside the highway,
then ebbed back and left them stranded. Irresistible reaction plunged
them into listless stupor; they forgot their enthusiasm; they thought no
more of the men whom they had to rejoin; they surrendered themselves to
the melancholy sweetness of finding themselves alone, hand in hand, in
the midst of the wild darkness.

"You are not angry with me?" the girl at length inquired. "I could
easily walk the whole night with you; but they were running too quickly,
I could hardly breathe."

"Why should I be angry with you?" the young man said.

"I don't know. I was afraid you might not love me any longer. I wish I
could have taken long strides like you, and have walked along without
stopping. You will think I am a child."

Silvere smiled, and Miette, though the darkness prevented her from
seeing him, guessed that he was doing so. Then she continued with
determination: "You must not always treat me like a sister. I want to be
your wife some day."

Forthwith she clasped Silvere to her bosom, and, still with her arms
about him, murmured: "We shall grow so cold; come close to me that we
may be warm."

Then they lapsed into silence. Until that troublous hour, they had loved
one another with the affection of brother and sister. In their ignorance
they still mistook their feelings for tender friendship, although
beneath their guileless love their ardent blood surged more wildly
day by day. Given age and experience, a violent passion of southern
intensity would at last spring from this idyll. Every girl who hangs on
a you