g out on the
prospect. A fair one it was, of fields and vineyards, with streams
winding about, but very small. They spoke of rivers, but I saw none. It
was the same with the hills, which Yvon bade me see here and there;
little risings, that would not check the breath in a running man. For
all that, the country was a fine country, and I praised it honestly,
though knowing in my heart that it was but a poor patch beside our own.
I was thinking this, when the young lady turned to me, and asked, in her
gracious way, would I be coming back, I and my people, to rebuild
Chateau D'Arthenay?

"It was the finest in the county, so the old books say!" she told me.
"There was a hall for dancing, a hundred feet long, and once the Sieur
D'Arthenay gave a ball for the king, Henri Quatre it was, and the hall
was lighted with a thousand tapers of rose-coloured wax, set in silver
sconces. How that must have been pretty, M. D'Arthenay!"

I thought of our kitchen at home, and the glass lamps that Mere-Marie
kept shining with such care; but before I could speak, Yvon broke in.
"He shall come! I tell him he shall come, Valerie! All my life I perish,
thou knowest it, for a companion of my sex, of my age. Thou art my
angel, Valerie, but thou art a woman, and soon, too, thou wilt leave me.
Alone, a hermit in my chateau, my heart desolate, how to support life?
It is for this that I cry to the friend of my house to return to his
country, the country of his race; to bring here his respected father, to
plant a vineyard, a little corn, a little fruit,--briefly, to live.
Observe!" Instantly his hands fluttered out, pointing here and there.

"Jacques, observe, I implore you! This tower; it is now uninhabited, is
it not? you can answer me that, though you have been here but a day."

As he waited for an answer, I replied that it certainly was vacant, so
far as I could see; except that there must be bats and owls, I thought,
in the thickness of the ivy trees.

"Perfectly! Except for these animals, there is none to dispute your
entrance. The tower is solid,--of a solidity! Cannon must be brought, to
batter down these walls. Instead of battering, we restore, we construct.
With these brave walls to keep out the cold, you construct within--a
dwelling! vast, I do not say; palatial, I do not say; but ample for two
persons, who--who have lived together, _a deux_, not requiring separate
suites of apartments." He waved his hand in such a manner that I saw
lon