my pet."

"Why does it stop here?"

"It has not stopped here? It's stopping in front of the next house."

"There is no next house; there's only a vacant lot."

"Well, then, it has stopped in front of a vacant lot. What more can I
tell you?"

"I don't see anyone getting out of it."

"The driver is perhaps waiting for a fare."

"What, in front of a vacant lot!"

"Probably, my dear. This lock has got rusty."

She crept along, hiding herself behind the trees, toward the spot where
the cab had stopped, and then returned to Ligny, who had succeeded in
unlocking the gate.

"Robert, the blinds of the cab are down."

"Well, then, there's a loving couple inside."

"Don't you think there's something queer about that cab?"

"It is not a thing of beauty, but all cabs are ugly. Come in."

"Isn't somebody following us?"

"Whom do you expect to follow us?"

"I don't know. One of your women friends."

But she was not saying what was in her thoughts.

"Do come in, my darling."

When she had entered the garden she said:

"Be sure to close the gate properly, Robert."

Before them stretched a small oval grass-plot.

Behind it stood the house, with its flight of three steps, sheltered by
a zinc portico, its six windows, and its slate roof.

Ligny had rented it for a year from an old merchant's clerk, who had
wearied of it because nocturnal prowlers used to steal his fowls and
rabbits. On either side of the grass-plot a gravel path led to the
steps. They took the path on the right. The gravel creaked beneath their
feet.

"Madame Simonneau has forgotten to close the shutters again," said
Ligny.

Madame Simonneau was a woman from Neuilly, who came every morning to
clean up.

A large Judas-tree, leaning to one side, and to all appearance dead,
stretched one of its round black branches as far as the portico.

"I don't quite like that tree," said Felicie; "its branches are like
great snakes. One of them goes almost into our room."

They went up the three front steps; and, while he was looking through
his bunch of keys for the key of the front door, she rested her head on
his shoulder.

* * * * *

Felicie, when unveiling her beauty, displayed a serene pride which made
her adorable. She revealed such a quiet satisfaction in her nudity that
her chemise, when it fell to her feet, made the onlooker think of a
white peacock.

And when Robert saw her in her nakedness, bright as the