The most
of the townspeople were indoors at tea, discussing the sensation; the
few he encountered had no greeting from him. He looked neither to the
right nor to the left; had no ears for his friends, the trout, as they
rose at the evening flies. He reached the signpost and--walked past
it! He stumped straight up to the garden gate, which stood ajar, and
pushed it wide with his stick.
"There were signs of trampling on the flower-beds; but--for it was
July--the whole garden blazed with hollyhocks, oeillets, sweet
Williams, sweet peas, above all with that yellow flower--mimulus,
monkey flower, is it not?--which grows so profusely in gardens beside
streams. The air was weighted with scent of the reseda and of the
jasmine which climbed the wall and almost choked the roses.
"The cottage door stood ajar also. He thrust this open too, and for
the first time stood face to face with Mademoiselle Henriette.
"She sat by the kitchen table, with one arm flung across it, and her
body bowed with grief. At her feet lay a trodden bunch of the monkey
flowers: and at the tap-tap of his wooden leg on the threshold she
sprang up and faced him, across the yellow blossoms.
"'Mademoiselle,' he began, 'I have just learnt--but it is an infamy!
_Permettez_--I am French, I also, though you do not know me perhaps.'
"And with that M. Benest stammered and came to a halt, for her eyes
were worse than woeful.
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