which was shaded by
branches of beeches and willows that hung over this bank into the
river. After walking a short distance through this shady path, one found
himself before a huge triangular rock covered with moss, which nature
had rolled from the top of the mountain as if to close up the passage.

This obstacle was not insurmountable; but in order to cross it, one
must have a sure foot and steady head, for the least false step would
precipitate the unlucky one into the river, which was rapid as well as
deep. From the rock, one could reach the top of the cliff by means of
some natural stone steps, and then, descending on the other side, could
resume the path by the river, which had been momentarily interrupted.
In this case, one would reach, in about sixty steps, a place where
the river grew broader and the banks projected, forming here and there
little islands of sand covered with bushes. Here was a ford well known
to shepherds and to all persons who wished to avoid going as far as the
castle bridge.

Near the mossy rock of which we have spoken as being close to the
sycamore walk, at the foot of a wall against which it flowed, forming
a rather deep excavation, the current had found a vein of soft, brittle
stone which, by its incessant force, it had ended in wearing away. It
was a natural grotto formed by water, but which earth, in its turn,
had undertaken to embellish. An enormous willow had taken root in a few
inches of soil in a fissure of the rock, and its drooping branches fell
into the stream, which drifted them along without being able to detach
them.

Madame de Bergenheim was seated at the front of this grotto, upon a
seat formed by the base of the rock. She was tracing in the sand, with
a stick which she had picked up on the way, strange figures which she
carefully erased with her foot. Doubtless these hieroglyphics had some
meaning to her, and perhaps she feared lest the slightest marks might
be carelessly forgotten, as they would betray the secret they concealed.
Clemence was plunged into one of those ecstatic reveries which abolish
time and distance. The fibres of her heart, whose exquisite vibrating
had been so suddenly paralyzed by Christian's arrival, had resumed their
passionate thrills. She lived over again in her mind the tete-a-tete in
the drawing-room; she could hear the entrancing waltz again; she felt
her lover's breath in her hair; her hand trembled again under the
pressure of his kiss. When