“There are woods and rocks, a fair sky and white clouds.  I have walked there in the footsteps of good Saint Francis, and I transcribed his canticle to the sun in old French rhymes, simple and poor.”

Madame Martin said she would like to hear it.  Miss Bell was already listening, and her face wore the fervent expression of an angel sculptured by Mino.

Choulette told them it was a rustic and artless work.  The verses were not trying to be beautiful.  They were simple, although uneven, for the sake of lightness.  Then, in a slow and monotonous voice, he recited the canticle.

“Oh, Monsieur Choulette,” said Miss Bell, “this canticle goes up to heaven, like the hermit in the Campo Santo of Pisa, whom some one saw going up the mountain that the goats liked.  I will tell you.  The old hermit went up, leaning on the staff of faith, and his step was unequal because the crutch, being on one side, gave one of his feet an advantage over the other.  That is the reason why your verses are unequal.  I have understood it.”

The poet accepted this praise, persuaded that he had unwittingly deserved it.

“You have faith, Monsieur Choulette,” said Therese.  “Of what use is it to you if not to write beautiful verses?”

“Faith serves me to commit sin, Madame.”

“Oh, we commit sins without that.”

Madame Marmet appeared, equipped for the journey, in the tranquil joy of returning to her pretty apartment, her little dog Toby, her old friend Lagrange, and to see again, after the Etruscans of Fiesole, the skeleton warrior who, among the bonbon boxes, looked out of the window.

Miss Bell escorted her friends to the station in her carriage.

CHAPTER XXV

“We are robbing life”

Dechartre came to the carriage to salute the two travellers.  Separated from him, Therese felt what he was to her:  he had given to her a new taste of life, delicious and so vivid, so real, that she felt it on her lips.  She lived under a charm in the dream of seeing him again, and was surprised when Madame Marmet, along the journey, said:  “I think we are passing the frontier,” or “Rose-bushes are in bloom by the seaside.”  She was joyful when, after a night at the hotel in Marseilles, she saw the gray olive-trees in the stony fields, then the mulberry-trees and the distant profile of Mount Pilate, and the Rhone, and Lyons, and then the familiar landscapes, the trees raising their summits into bouquets clothed in tender green, and the lines of poplars beside the rivers.  She enjoyed the plenitude of the hours she lived and the astonishment of profound joys.  And it was with the smile of a sleeper suddenly awakened that, at the station in Paris, in the light of the station, she greeted her husband, who was glad to see her.  When she kissed Madame Marmet, she told her that she thanked her with all her heart.  And truly she was grateful to all things, like M. Choulette’s St. Francis.