ir playful,
childish imaginations. They had no desire to see each other face to
face: it seemed much more amusing to them to use the well as a mirror,
and confide their morning greetings to its echo. They soon came to look
upon the well as an old friend. They loved to bend over the motionless
water that resembled molten silver. A greenish glimmer hovered below,
in a mysterious half light, and seemed to change the damp hole into some
hiding-place in the depths of a wood. They saw each other in a sort
of greenish nest bedecked with moss, in the midst of fresh water and
foliage. And all the strangeness of the deep spring, the hollow tower
over which they bent, trembling with fascination, added unconfessed and
delightful fear to their merry laughter. The wild idea occurred to them
of going down and seating themselves on a row of large stones which
formed a kind of circular bench at a few inches above the water. They
would dip their feet in the latter, converse there for hours, and no
one would think of coming to look for them in such a spot. But when
they asked each other what there might be down there, their vague fears
returned; they thought it quite sufficient to let their reflected images
descend into the depths amidst those green glimmers which tinged the
stones with strange moire-like reflections, and amidst those mysterious
noises which rose from the dark corners. Those sounds issuing from the
invisible made them particularly uneasy; they often fancied that voices
were replying to their own; and then they would remain silent, detecting
a thousand faint plaints which they could not understand. These came
from the secret travail of the moisture, the sighs of the atmosphere,
the drops that glided over the stones, and fell below with the
sonorousness of sobs. They would nod affectionately to each other
in order to reassure themselves. Thus the attraction which kept them
leaning over the brink had a tinge of secret terror, like all poignant
charms. But the well still remained their old friend. It was such
an excellent pretext for meeting! Justin, who watched Miette's every
movement, never suspected the cause of her eagerness to go and draw some
water every morning. At times, he saw her from the distance, leaning
over and loitering. "Ah! the lazy thing!" he muttered; "how fond she is
of dawdling about!" How could he suspect that, on the other side of the
wall, there was a wooer contemplating the girl's smile in the water, an