And Juliette—­young, girlish, feminine and inconsequent—­had sighed for country and sunshine, had longed for a ramble in the woods, the music of the birds, the sight of the meadows sugared with marguerites.

She had left the house early:  accompanied by Petronelle, she had been rowed along the river as far as Suresnes.  They had brought some bread and fresh butter, a little wine and fruit in a basket, and from here she meant to wander homewards through the woods.

It was all so peaceful, so remote:  even the noise of shrieking, howling Paris did not reach the leafy thickets of Suresnes.

It almost seemed as if this little old-world village had been forgotten by the destroyers of France.  It had never been a royal residence, the woods had never been preserved for royal sport:  there was no vengeance to be wreaked upon its peaceful glades and sleepy, fragrant meadows.

Juliette spent a happy day; she loved the flowers, the trees, the birds, and Petronelle was silent and sympathetic.  As the afternoon wore on, and it was time to go home, Juliette turned townwards with a sigh.

You all know that road through the woods, which lies to the north-west of Paris:  so leafy, so secluded.  No large, hundred-year-old trees, no fine oaks or antique elms, but numberless delicate stems of hazel-nut and young ash, covered with honeysuckle at this time of year, sweet-smelling and so peaceful after that awful turmoil of the town.

Obedient to Madame Deroulede’s suggestion, Juliette had tied a tricolour scarf round her waist, and a Phrygian cap of crimson cloth, with the inevitable rosette on one side, adorned her curly head.

She had gathered a huge bouquet of poppies, marguerites and blue lupin —­Nature’s tribute to the national colours—­and as she wandered through the sylvan glades she looked like some quaint dweller of the woods—­a sprite, mayhap—­with old mother Petronelle trotting behind her, like an attendant witch.

Suddenly she paused, for in the near distance she had perceived the sound of footsteps upon the leafy turf, and the next moment Paul Deroulede emerged from out the thicket and came rapidly towards her.

“We were so anxious about you at home!” he said, almost by way of an apology.  “My mother became so restless...”

“That to quiet her fears you came in search of me!” she retorted with a gay little laugh, the laugh of a young girl, scarce a woman as yet, who feels that she is good to look at, good to talk to, who feels her wings for the first time, the wings with which to soar into that mad, merry, elusive and called Romance.  Ay, her wings! but her power also! that sweet, subtle power of the woman:  the yoke which men love, rail at, and love again, the yoke that enslaves them and gives them the joy of kings.

How happy the day had been!  Yet it had been incomplete!

Petronelle was somewhat dull, and Juliette was too young to enjoy long companionship with her own thoughts.  Now suddenly the day seemed to have become perfect.  There was someone there to appreciate the charm of the woods, the beauty of that blue sky peeping though the tangled foliage of the honeysuckle-covered trees.  There was some one to talk to, someone to admire the fresh white frock Juliette had put on that morning.