n,
dressed in a petticoat of gray woolen material, and a jacket of the
same, close-fitting at the waist, her arms bare to the elbows and
supporting on her head a bag of nuts enveloped in a white sheet,
advanced toward him with a quick and rhythmical step. The manner in
which she carried her burden showed the elegance of her form, the
perfect grace of her chest and throat. She was not very tall, but finely
proportioned. As she approached, the slanting rays of the setting sun
shone on her heavy brown hair, twisted into a thick coil at the back of
her head, and revealed the amber paleness of her clear skin, the long
oval of her eyes, the firm outline of her chin and somewhat full lips;
and Claudet, roused from his lethargic reverie by the sound of her rapid
footsteps, raised his eyes, and recognized the daughter of Pere Vincart,
the proprietor of La Thuiliere.

At the same moment, the young girl, doubtless fatigued with the weight
of her bundle, had laid it down by the roadside while she recovered her
breath. In a few seconds Claudet was by her side.

"Good-evening, Reine," said he, in a voice singularly softened in tone,
"shall I give you a lift with that?"

"Good-evening, Claudet," replied she; "truly, now, that is not an offer
to be refused. The weight is greater than I thought."

"Have you come far thus laden?"

"No; our people are nutting in the Bois des Ronces; I came on before,
because I don't like to leave father alone for long at a time and, as I
was coming, I wished to bring my share with me."

"No one can reproach you with shirking work, Reine, nor of being afraid
to take hold of things. To see you all day trotting about the farm, no
one would think you had been to school in the city, like a young lady."

And Claudet's countenance became irradiated with a glow of innocent and
tender admiration. It was evident that his eyes looked with delight into
the dark limpid orbs of Reine, on her pure and rosy lips, and on her
partly uncovered neck, the whiteness of which two little brown moles
only served to enhance.

"How can it be helped?" replied she, smiling, "it must be done; when
there is no man in the house to give orders, the women must take a hand
themselves. My father was not very strong when my mother died, and since
he had that attack he has become quite helpless, and I have had to take
his place."

While she spoke, Claudet took hold of the bundle, and, lifting it as if
it had been a feather, threw i