vil, and I was
just going to give him some sort of answer, when the boat stopped. We
were at Saint-Cloud.

The little woman who had so taken my fancy, got up in order to land. She
passed close to me, and gave me a side glance and a furtive smile; one of
those smiles that drive you mad; then she jumped on the landing-stage.
I sprang forward to follow her, but my neighbor laid hold of my arm, I
shook myself loose, however, whereupon he seized the skirt of my coat,
and pulled me back, exclaiming:

"You shall not go! You shall not go!" in such a loud voice, that
everybody turned round and laughed, and I remained standing motionless
and furious, but without venturing to face scandal and ridicule, and the
steamboat started.

The little woman on the landing-stage looked at me as I went off with
an air of disappointment, while my persecutor rubbed his hands, and
whispered to me:

"I have done you a great service, you must acknowledge."

THE JENNET

Every time he held an inspection on the review ground, General Daumont de
Croisailles was sure of a small success, and of receiving a whole packet
of letters from women the next day.

Some were almost illegible, scribbled on paper with a love emblem at the
top, by some sentimental milliner; the others ardent, as if saturated
with curry, letters which excited him, and suggested the delights of
kisses to him.

Among them, also, there were some which evidently came from a woman of
the world, who was tired of her monotonous life, had lost her head, and
let her pen run on, without exactly knowing what she was writing, with
those mistakes in spelling here and there which seemed to be in unison
with the disordered beating of her heart.

He certainly looked magnificent on horseback; there was something of the
fighter, something bold and mettlesome about him, _a valiant look_, as
our grandmothers used to say, when they threw themselves into the arms
of the conquerors, between two campaigns, though the same conquerors had
loud, rough voices, even when they were making love, as they had to
dominate the noise of the firing, and violent gestures, as if they were
using their swords and issuing orders, who did not waste time over
useless refinements, and in squandering the precious hours which were
counted so avariciously, in minor caresses, but sounded the charge
immediately, and made the assault, without meeting with any more
resistance than they did from a redoubt.

As soon