The sky had cleared during the night; there had been a frost, and the meadows were powdered white.  The leaves, just nipped with the frost, were dropping softly to the ground, and formed little green heaps at the base of the trees.  Julien dressed himself hurriedly, and descended to the courtyard, where the first thing he saw was the cabriolet, which had been brought in the early morning and which one of the farm-boys was in the act of sousing with water in the hope of freeing the hood and wheels from the thick mud which covered them.  When he entered the diningroom, brightened by the rosy rays of the morning sun, he found Reine Vincart there before him.  She was dressed in a yellow striped woolen skirt, and a jacket of white flannel carelessly belted at the waist.  Her dark chestnut hair, parted down the middle and twisted into a loose knot behind, lay in ripples round her smooth, open forehead.

“Good-morning, Monsieur de Buxieres,” said she, in her cordial tone, “did you sleep well?  Yes?  I am glad.  You find me busy attending to household matters.  My father is still in bed, and I am taking advantage of the fact to arrange his little corner.  The doctor said he must not be put near the fire, so I have made a place for him here; he enjoys it immensely, and I arranged this nook to protect him from draughts.”

And she showed him how she had put the big easy chair, padded with cushions, in the bright sunlight which streamed through the window, and shielded by the screens, one on each side.  She noticed that Julien was examining, with some curiosity, the uncouth pictures from Epinal, with which the screens were covered.

“This,” she explained, “is my own invention.  My father is a little weak in the head, but he understands a good many things, although he can not talk about them.  He used to get weary of sitting still all day in his chair, so I lined the screens with these pictures in order that he might have something to amuse him.  He is as pleased as a child with the bright colors, and I explain the subjects to him.  I don’t tell him much at a time, for fear of fatiguing him.  We have got now to Pyramus and Thisbe, so that we shall have plenty to occupy us before we reach the end.”

She caught a pitying look from her guest which seemed to say:  “The poor man may not last long enough to reach the end.”  Doubtless she had the same fear, for her dark eyes suddenly glistened, she sighed, and remained for some moments without speaking.

In the mean time the magpie, which Julien had seen the day before, was hopping around its mistress, like a familiar spirit; it even had the audacity to peck at her hair and then fly away, repeating, in its cracked voice: 

“Reine, queen of the woods!”

“Why ‘queen of the woods?"’ asked Julien, coloring.

“Ah!” replied the young girl, “it is a nickname which the people around here give me, because I am so fond of the trees.  I spend all the time I can in our woods, as much as I can spare from the work of the farm.