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I spent whole days in the Paradou, and ferreted about in all the out-of-the-way green corners, to have the pleasure of sitting for an hour in that happy spot. What mornings have I not wasted in groping under the brambles and peeping into the most distant nooks of the park! Oh!
The Paradou its flower-garden, forest, rocks, streams, and meadows filled the whole breadth of sky. 'The Paradou! stammered Serge, stretching out his arms as if to clasp the entire garden to his breast. He tottered, and Albine had to seat him in an armchair. There he sat for two whole hours intently gazing, without opening his lips, his chin resting on his hands.
Having tossed the book upon his bed he gazed for hours through his open window at the surrounding country. In the far distance he saw the long wall of the Paradou, creeping like a thin white line amongst the gloomy patches of the pine plantations to the crest of the hills. On the left, hidden by one of those plantations, was the breach. He could not see it, but he knew it was there.
And there, as she saw Serge hesitate, with lowered head she cried out violently: 'Away with you Go! And slowly she herself went back into the Paradou, without even turning her head. Night was fast falling, and the garden was but a huge bier of shadows. Brother Archangias, aroused from his slumber, stood erect in the breach, striking the stones with his stick and swearing abominably.
It must have been later, perhaps during his long walk in the sun, or while he shivered under the trees of the Paradou, or while stifling in Desiree's poultry-yard. And then he lived through the day again. Before him stretched the vast plain, more direful still beneath the pallid light of the oblique moonbeams.
During the long hours they spent together, Albine and he never now spoke of the rocks or the streams, the trees or the sky. The Paradou might no longer have been in existence. They strove to forget it. And yet they were all the time conscious of its presence on the other side of those slight curtains.
'You smell of weeds enough to poison one would any one think she was sixteen, that doll? Albine remained unabashed, however, and laughed still more heartily. Doctor Pascal, who was her great friend, let her kiss him. 'So you are not frightened in the Paradou? he asked. 'Frightened? What of? she said, her eyes wide open with astonishment. 'The walls are too high, no one can get in.
And then silence reigned again. What exasperated the old servant was the mystery the priest seemed to make about his visit to the Paradou. She deemed herself a woman who had been shamefully deceived. Her curiosity smarted. She again walked round the table, not looking at the Abbe, not addressing anybody, but comforting herself with soliloquy. 'That's it; that's why we have lunch so late!
There passed across her mind during that period much that Paradou could not have understood had it been told to him in words: chiefly the sense of an enlightening contrast betwixt the man who talked of kings and the man who kept a wine-shop, betwixt the love she yearned for and that to which she had been long exposed like a victim bound upon the altar.
The breeze, wafted in from the open country, was now laden with that penetrating perfume of verdure, that scent of wildflowers, which Albine had scattered from her bare arms, unfettered bosom, and streaming tresses at the Paradou. 'An accursed soul! a child of perdition! growled Brother Archangias, as he reseated himself at the dinner table.
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