and such a charming mingling of feminine delicacy and childlike innocence, that I stopped every few moments to look at her.  It seemed that, once started, she had to accomplish a difficult but sacred task; she walked in front like a soldier, her arms swinging, her voice ringing through the woods in song; suddenly she would turn, come to me and kiss me.  This was on the outward journey; on the return she leaned on my arm; then more songs, confidences, tender avowals in low tones, although we were alone, two leagues from anywhere.  I do not recall a single word spoken on the return that was not of love or friendship.

Another night we struck out through the woods, leaving the road which led to the rock.  Brigitte was tramping along so stoutly and her little velvet cap on her light hair made her look so much like a resolute youth, that I forgot she was a woman when there were no obstacles in our path.  More than once she was obliged to call me to her aid when I, without thinking of her, had pushed on ahead.  I can not describe the effect produced on me in the clear night air, in the midst of the forest, by that voice of hers, half-joyous and half-plaintive, coming, as it were, from that little schoolboy body wedged in between roots and trunks of trees, unable to advance.  I took her in my arms.

“Come, Madame,” I cried, laughing, “you are a pretty little mountaineer, but you are blistering your white hands, and in spite of your hobnailed shoes, your stick and your martial air, I see that you must be carried.”

We arrived at the rock breathless; about my body was strapped a leather belt to which was attached a wicker bottle.  When we were seated on the rock, my dear Brigitte asked for the bottle; I had lost it, as well as a tinder-box which served another purpose:  that was to read the inscriptions on the guide-posts when we went astray, which occurred frequently.  At such times I would climb the posts, and read the half-effaced inscription by the light of the tinder-box; all this in play, like the children that we were.  At a crossroad we would have to examine not one guide-post but five or six until the right one was found.  But this time we had lost our baggage on the way.

“Very well,” said Brigitte, “we will pass the night here, as I am rather tired.  This rock will make a hard bed, but we can cover it with dry leaves.  Let us sit down and make the best of it.”

The night was superb; the moon was rising behind us; I looked at it over my left shoulder.  Brigitte was watching the lines of the wooded hills as they began to outline themselves against the background of sky.  As the light flooded the copse and threw its halo over sleeping nature, Brigitte’s song became more gentle and more melancholy.  Then she bent over, and, throwing her arms around my neck, said: