ater he had taken up his abode in the old priory, to be
near the doctor and the Comtesse de Vandieres.

"Where is she?" he cried at once.

"Hush!" answered M. Fanjat, Stephanie's uncle. "She is sleeping. Stay;
here she is."

Philip saw the poor distraught sleeper crouching on a stone bench in
the sun. Her thick hair, straggling over her face, screened it from the
glare and heat; her arms dropped languidly to the earth; she lay at ease
as gracefully as a fawn, her feet tucked up beneath her; her bosom
rose and fell with her even breathing; there was the same transparent
whiteness as of porcelain in her skin and complexion that we so often
admire in children's faces. Genevieve sat there motionless, holding a
spray that Stephanie doubtless had brought down from the top of one of
the tallest poplars; the idiot girl was waving the green branch above
her, driving away the flies from her sleeping companion, and gently
fanning her.

She stared at M. Fanjat and the colonel as they came up; then, like
a dumb animal that recognizes its master, she slowly turned her face
towards the countess, and watched over her as before, showing not
the slightest sign of intelligence or of astonishment. The air was
scorching. The glittering particles of the stone bench shone like sparks
of fire; the meadow sent up the quivering vapors that hover above
the grass and gleam like golden dust when they catch the light, but
Genevieve did not seem to feel the raging heat.

The colonel wrung M. Fanjat's hands; the tears that gathered in
the soldier's eyes stole down his cheeks, and fell on the grass at
Stephanie's feet.

"Sir," said her uncle, "for these two years my heart has been broken
daily. Before very long you will be as I am; if you do not weep, you
will not feel your anguish the less."

"You have taken care of her!" said the colonel, and jealousy no less
than gratitude could be read in his eyes.

The two men understood one another. They grasped each other by the hand
again, and stood motionless, gazing in admiration at the serenity that
slumber had brought into the lovely face before them. Stephanie heaved
a sigh from time to time, and this sigh, that had all the appearance of
sensibility, made the unhappy colonel tremble with gladness.

"Alas!" M. Fanjat said gently, "do not deceive yourself, monsieur; as
you see her now, she is in full possession of such reason as she has."

Those who have sat for whole hours absorbed in the deligh