The arrival of Julien and Claudet, attended by the small cowboy, puffing and blowing under a load of provisions, was hailed with exclamations of gladness and welcome.  While one of the assistants was carefully unrolling the big loaves of white bread, the enormous meat pastry, and the bottles encased in straw, Reine Vincart appeared suddenly on the scene, accompanied by one of the farm-hands, who was also tottering under the weight of a huge basket, from the corners of which peeped the ends of bottles, and the brown knuckle of a smoked ham.  At sight of the young proprietress of La Thuiliere, the hurrahs burst forth again, with redoubled and more sustained energy.  As she stood there smiling, under the greenish shadow cast by the ashtrees, Reine appeared to Julien even more seductive than among the frosty surroundings of the previous occasion.  Her simple and rustic spring costume was marvellously becoming:  a short blue-and-yellow striped skirt, a tight jacket of light-colored material, fitted closely to the waist, a flat linen collar tied with a narrow blue ribbon, and a bouquet of woodruff at her bosom.  She wore stout leather boots, and a large straw hat, which she threw carelessly down on entering the hut.  Among so many faces of a different type, all somewhat disfigured by hardships of exposure, this lovely face with its olive complexion, lustrous black eyes, and smiling red lips, framed in dark, soft, wavy hair resting on her plump shoulders, seemed to spread a sunshiny glow over the scene.  It was a veritable portrayal of the “queen of the woods,” appearing triumphant among her rustic subjects.  As an emblem of her royal prerogative, she held in her hand an enormous bouquet of flowers she had gathered on her way:  honeysuckles, columbine, all sorts of grasses with shivering spikelets, black alder blossoms with their white centres, and a profusion of scarlet poppies.  Each of these exhaled its own salubrious springlike perfume, and a light cloud of pollen, which covered the eyelashes and hair of the young girl with a delicate white powder.

“Here, Pere Theotime,” said she, handing her collection over to the master charcoal-dealer, “I gathered these for you to ornament the roof of your dwelling.”

She then drew near to Claudet; gave him her hand in comrade fashion, and saluted Julien: 

“Good-morning, Monsieur de Buxieres, I am very glad to see you here.  Was it Claudet who brought you, or did you come of your own accord?”

While Julien, dazed and bewildered, was seeking a reply, she passed quickly to the next group, going from one to another, and watching with interest the placing of the bouquet on the summit of the hut.  One of the men brought a ladder and fastened the flowers to a spike.  When they were securely attached and began to nod in the air, he waved his hat and shouted:  “Hou, houp!” This was the signal for going to table.