couraging their passion, and at last,
on that supreme day, it had lured them to that spot, and now it became
the Tempter whose every voice spoke of love. From the flower-beds, amid
the fragrance of the languid blossoms, was wafted a soft sighing, which
told of the weddings of the roses, the love-joys of the violets; and
never before had the heliotropes sent forth so voluptuous a perfume.
Mingled with the soft air which arose from the orchard were all the
exhalations of ripe fruit, the vanilla of apricots, the musk of oranges,
all the luscious aroma of fruitfulness. From the meadows came fuller
notes, the million sighs of the sun-kissed grass, the multitudinous
love-plaints of legions of living things, here and there softened by
the refreshing caresses of the rivulets, on whose banks the very willows
palpitated with desire. And the forest proclaimed the mighty passion of
the oaks. Through the high branches sounded solemn music, organ strains
like the nuptial marches of the ashes and the birches, the hornbeams
and the planes, while from the bushes and the young coppices arose noisy
mirth like that of youthful lovers chasing one another over banks and
into hollows amid much crackling and snapping of branches. From afar,
too, the faint breeze wafted the sounds of the rocks splitting in their
passion beneath the burning heat, while near them the spiky plants
loved in a tragic fashion of their own, unrefreshed by the neighbouring
springs, which themselves glowed with the love of the passionate sun.

'What do they say?' asked Serge, half swooning, as Albine pressed him to
her bosom. The voices of the Paradou were growing yet more distinct.
The animals, in their turn, joined in the universal song of nature.
The grasshoppers grew faint with the passion of their chants; the
butterflies scattered kisses with their beating wings. The amorous
sparrows flew to their mates; the rivers rippled over the loves of the
fishes; whilst in the depths of the forest the nightingales sent forth
pearly, voluptuous notes, and the stags bellowed their love aloud.
Reptiles and insects, every species of invisible life, every atom of
matter, the earth itself joined in the great chorus. It was the chorus
of love and of nature--the chorus of the whole wide world; and in the
very sky the clouds were radiant with rapture, as to those two children
Love revealed the Eternity of Life.

XVI

Albine and Serge smiled at one another.

'I love you, Albi