‘What do they say?’ asked Serge, half swooning, as Albine pressed him to her bosom.  The voices of the Paradou were growing yet more distinct.  The animals, in their turn, joined in the universal song of nature.  The grasshoppers grew faint with the passion of their chants; the butterflies scattered kisses with their beating wings.  The amorous sparrows flew to their mates; the rivers rippled over the loves of the fishes; whilst in the depths of the forest the nightingales sent forth pearly, voluptuous notes, and the stags bellowed their love aloud.  Reptiles and insects, every species of invisible life, every atom of matter, the earth itself joined in the great chorus.  It was the chorus of love and of nature—­the chorus of the whole wide world; and in the very sky the clouds were radiant with rapture, as to those two children Love revealed the Eternity of Life.

XVI

Albine and Serge smiled at one another.

‘I love you, Albine,’ said Serge.

‘Serge, I love you,’ Albine answered.

And never before had those syllables ‘I love you’ had for them so supreme a meaning.  They expressed everything.  Joy pervaded those young lovers, who had attained to the fulness of life.  They felt that they were now on a footing of equality with the forces of the world; and with their happiness mingled the placid conviction that they had obeyed the universal law.  And Serge seemed to have awakened to life, lion-like, to rule the whole far expanse under the free heavens.  His feet planted themselves more firmly on the ground, his chest expanded, there was pride and confidence in his gait and demeanour.  He took Albine by the hands, she was trembling, and he was obliged to support her.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ he said; ‘you are she whom I love.’

It was Albine now who had become the submissive one.  She drooped her head upon his shoulder, glancing up at him with anxious scrutiny.  Would he never bear her spite for that hour of adoration in which he had called himself her slave?  But he smiled, and stroked her hair, while she said to him:  ’Let me stay like this, in your arms, for I cannot walk without you.  I will make myself so small and light, that you will scarcely know I am there.’  Then becoming very serious she added, ’You must always love me; and I will be very obedient and do whatever you wish.  I will yield to you in all things if you but love me.’

Serge felt more powerful and virile on seeing her so humble.  ’Why are you trembling so?’ he asked her; ‘I can have no cause to reproach you.’

But she did not answer him, she gazed almost sadly upon the tree and the foliage and the grass around them.

‘Foolish child!’ he said, laughing; ’are you afraid that I shall be angry with you for your love?  We have loved as we were meant to love.  Let me kiss you.’

But, dropping her eyelids so that she might not see the tree, she said, in a low whisper, ‘Take me away!’