Only for Wilhelm, now that she had really taken notice of him, did those eyes begin to grow soft and gentle, and when they met his turned meek and harmless, and, in their apparent innocence, seemed to plead to him for notice, confidence, instruction.  He did not remain impervious to their influence.  It afforded him distinct pleasure to sit at table beside this beautiful woman and show her small attentions.  On his long walks he caught himself thinking deeply about her, while the blood coursed with unwonted heat through his veins.  He marked her entrance into the dining room or salon by his heart stopping suddenly and then racing on in wild, irregular beats, and if he looked at her the indecorous thought came to him that it would be a joy to stroke those firm, round cheeks, to pass one’s fingers gently over those swelling lips, but more especially to bury one’s hands in that flood of silken hair.  These various discoveries rather took him aback, and resulted in increasing his reserve almost to the point of rudeness.  He still only met her at the table d’hote, and never attempted to approach at any other time, although she had asked him repeatedly if he did not take walks or make excursions into the country.

One morning, soon after the conversation about the donkey, he went down to the beach, where, it being the bathing hour, the whole visiting population of Ault was assembled.  The coast met the sea at this point as a perpendicular wall of rock a hundred and fifty feet high, stretching away to the west in an endless line, but on the east side, sloping gradually down, till about two miles further on, it lost itself in the flat line of the shore.  Where the sweep of the bare, gray cliff made a slight backward curve, the sea had washed the shingle together to form a little beach covered with pebbles from the largest to the smallest size.  Here two rows of modest wooden cabins were erected, which served as bathing houses, and beside these, a great wooden structure on wheels, not unlike the enormous house-caravans in which the owners of shows and menageries and such-like wandering folk travel about from fair to fair.  The French flag fluttering from a pole on the top of the caravan drew attention to it, and on closer inspection one read above the entrance—­which was approached by a movable wooden staircase—­the proud legend “Casino d’Ault.”  Yes, Ault actually boasted a casino, with an entrance fee of ten centimes a head, and in the single room, which occupied the whole structure, you found a jeu de course, and other games of hazard, exactly as they had them in the most renowned and elegant dens of thieves of the fashionable watering places.