At that same time, Albine was still wandering about in the Paradou, with the dumb agony of a wounded animal. She was no longer weeping. Her face was white, with one deep furrow on her brow. Why was she suffering such a death? What...
A few steps beyond the wall, Albine was sitting on a carpet of grass. She rose to her feet when she saw Serge.
‘You’re here!’ she cried, trembling from head to foot.
‘Yes,’ he said calmly, ‘I have come.’
She threw her arms around his...
The next day was a Sunday. As the Exaltation of the Holy Cross* fell on a day of High Mass, Abbé Mouret had decided to celebrate this religious feast with special grandeur. He had developed an extraordinary devotion to the Cross; in...
The Brother, who had already eaten, stayed on while the priest had dinner, sitting astride a chair he had turned round. Ever since the priest had come back to Les Artaud, he had been installing himself like this in the presbytery almost every evening....
Abbé
Mouret in his cassock, bareheaded, had returned to kneel at the foot of the altar. In the grey light coming from the windows, his tonsure made a very wide, pale patch in his hair, and the slight shiver that made him...
For the next few days, however, Albine and Serge were not at ease with one another. They avoided any reference to their walk in the trees. They had not exchanged a kiss, they had not said they loved each other. It was not shame...
A week later there was another great journey into the park. This time they were to go over to the left beyond the orchard, where there were vast meadows, with four streams flowing through them. They would go several miles over the open grass;...
Albine and
Serge entered the flower garden. She was looking at him with anxious concern, fearing he might be getting overtired. But he reassured her with a little laugh. He felt strong enough to take her wherever she might want to go. When he...
The sun was indeed there. When Albine had opened the shutters behind the big curtains, that good yellow glow once more warmed up a bit of the white calico. But what made Serge sit up in bed was the sight of the shadow of...
Inside the church, Abbé Mouret found about ten girls holding branches of olive, laurel, and rosemary. As garden flowers rarely grew on the rocks of Les Artaud, it was the custom to decorate the altar of the Virgin with hardy greenery that lasted through...
