At times, he saw her from the distance, leaning
over and loitering. "Ah! the lazy thing!" he muttered; "how fond she is
of dawdling about!" How could he suspect that, on the other side of the
wall, there was a wooer contemplating the girl's smile in the water, and
saying to her: "If that red-haired donkey Justin should illtreat you,
just tell me of it, and he shall hear from me!"
This amusement lasted for more than a month. It was July then; the
mornings were sultry; the sun shone brightly, and it was quite a
pleasure to come to that damp spot. It was delightful to feel the cold
breath of the well on one's face, and make love amidst this spring water
while the skies were kindling their fires. Miette would arrive out of
breath after crossing the stubble fields; as she ran along, her hair
fell down over her forehead and temples; and it was with flushed face
and dishevelled locks that she would lean over, shaking with laughter,
almost before she had had time to set her pitcher down. Silvere, who
was almost always the first at the well, felt, as he suddenly saw her
smiling face in the water, as keen a joy as he would have experienced
had she suddenly thrown herself into his arms at the bend of a pathway.
Around them the radiant morning hummed with mirth; a wave of warm light,
sonorous with the buzzing of insects, beat against the old wall, the
posts, and the curbstone. They, however, no longer saw the shower of
morning sunshine, nor heard the thousand sounds rising from the ground;
they were in the depths of their green hiding-place, under the earth, in
that mysterious and awesome cavity, and quivered with pleasure as they
lingered there enjoying its fresh coolness and dim light.
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