the little village of Benouville, on the Falaise, between Yport and
Etretat. I came from Fecamp, following the coast, a high coast,
perpendicular as a wall, with projecting and rugged rocks falling sheer
down into the sea. I had walked since the morning on the close clipped
grass, as smooth and as yielding as a carpet. Singing lustily, I walked
with long strides, looking sometimes at the slow and lazy flight of a
gull, with its short, white wings, sailing in the blue heavens,
sometimes at the green sea, or at the brown sails of a fishing bark. In
short, I had passed a happy day, a day of listlessness and of liberty.

"I was shown a little farmhouse, where travelers were put up, a kind of
inn, kept by a peasant, which stood in the center of a Norman court,
surrounded by a double row of beeches.

"Quitting the Falaise. I gained the hamlet, which was hemmed in by
great trees, and I presented myself at the house of Mother Lecacheur.

"She was an old, wrinkled, and austere rustic, who always seemed to
yield to the pressure of new customs with a kind of contempt.

"It was the month of May: the spreading apple-trees covered the court
with a whirling shower of blossoms which rained unceasingly both upon
people and upon the grass.

"I said:

"'Well, Madame Lecacheur, have you a room for me?'

"Astonished to find that I knew her name, she answered:

"'That depends; everything is let; but, all the same, there will be no
harm in looking.'

"In five minutes we were in perfect accord, and I deposited my bag upon
the bare floor of a rustic room, furnished with a bed, two chairs, a
table, and a washstand. The room opened into the large and smoky
kitchen, where the lodgers took their meals with the people of the farm
and with the farmer himself, who was a widower.

"I washed my hands, after which I went out. The old woman was
fricasseeing a chicken for dinner in a large fireplace, in which hung
the stew-pot, black with smoke.

"'You have travelers, then, at the present time?' said I to her.

"She answered in an offended tone of voice:

"'I have a lady, an English lady, who has attained to years of
maturity. She is occupying my other room.'

"By means of an extra five sous a day, I obtained the privilege of
dining out in the court when the weather was fine.

"My cover was then placed in front of the door, and I commenced to gnaw
with hunger the lean members of the Normandy chicken, to drink the
clear cider, and to munc