All the past revived before them.  The name of Rose had been given to the child in memory of the other long-mourned Rose, who had been the first to leave them, and who slept yonder in the little cemetery.  There in his turn had Blaise been laid, and thither Charlotte had followed them.  Then Berthe, Blaise’s daughter, who had married Philippe Havard, had given birth to Angeline.  And, later, Angeline, having married Georges Delmas, had given birth to Rose.  Berthe and Philippe Havard, Angeline and Georges Delmas stood behind the child.  And she represented one and all, the dead, the living, the whole flourishing line, its many griefs, its many joys, all the valiant toil of creation, all the river of life that it typified, for everything ended in her, dear, frail, fair-haired angel, with eyes bright like the dawn, in whose depths the future sparkled.

“Oh! our Rose! our Rose!”

With a big bouquet between her little hands Rose had stepped forward.  She had been learning a very fine compliment for a fortnight past, and that very morning she had recited it to her mother without making a single mistake.  But when she found herself there among all these people she could not recollect a word of it.  Still that did not trouble her, she was already a very bold little damsel, and she frankly dropped her bouquet and sprang at the necks of Mathieu and Marianne, exclaiming in her shrill, flute-like voice:  “Grandpapa, grandmamma, it’s your fete, and I kiss you with all my heart!”

And that suited everybody remarkably well.  They even found it far better than any compliment.  Laughter and clapping of hands and acclamations again arose.  Then they forthwith began to take their seats at table.

This, however, was quite an affair, so large was the horse-shoe table spread out under the oak on the short, freshly cut grass.  First Mathieu and Marianne, still arm in arm, went ceremoniously to seat themselves in the centre with their backs towards the trunk of the great tree.  On Mathieu’s left, Marthe and Denis, Louise and her husband, notary Mazaud, took their places, since it had been fittingly decided that the husbands and wives should not be separated.  On the right of Marianne came Ambroise, Therese, Gervais, Dr. Chambouvet, three widowers and a widow, then another married couple, Madeleine and her husband, architect Herbette, and then Benjamin alone.  The other married folks afterwards installed themselves according to the generation they belonged to; and then, as had been decided, youth and childhood, the whole troop of young people and little ones took seats as they pleased amid no little turbulence.