"You shall never leave us; never more, my child." Her enthusiasm often embarrassed me, but I finally came to believe that I deserved it. If, as many others would have done in my place, I had chosen to abuse her generosity ... Oh, misfortune! And what was to happen happened. On the day of which I speak, the weather had been very warm, very heavy, and very threatening. Across the sky, above the leaden and perfectly flat sea, rolled stifling clouds, thick red clouds, through which the storm could not break. M. Georges had not gone out, even to the terrace, and we had remained in his room. More nervous than usual, a nervousness due undoubtedly to the electricity in the atmosphere, he had even refused to let me read poetry to him. "That would tire me," he said. "And, besides, I feel that you would read very badly to-day." He had gone into the _salon_, where he had tried to play a little on the piano. The piano having plagued him, he had at once come back into the room, where he had sought to divert himself for a moment by drawing, as it seemed to me, some feminine profiles. But he had not been slow in abandoning paper and pencil, fuming with some impatience: "I cannot; I am not in the mood. My hand trembles. I don't know what is the matter with me. And you,--there is something the matter with you, too. You are restless." Finally he had stretched himself on his long chair, near the large bay-window, through which one could see a vast expanse of water. Fishing-boats in the distance, fleeing from the ever-threatening storm, were re-entering the port of Trouville. With a distracted look he followed their manoeuvres and their grey sails. As M. Georges had said, I was restless; I could not keep still; I was continually moving about, to find something with which to occupy his mind. Of course I found nothing, and my agitation did not have a quieting influence on his. "Why do you move about so? Why do you enervate yourself? Stay beside me." I had asked him: "Would you not like to be on one of those little boats yonder? I would." "Oh! do not talk for the sake of talking. Why say useless things? Stay beside me." Scarcely had I taken my seat beside him, when, the sight of the sea becoming utterly unendurable to him, he asked me to lower the blind. "This bad light exasperates me; this sea is horrible. I do not wish to look at it. Everything is horrible to-day. I do not wish to see anything; I wish to see you only." I had gently chided him. "Oh! Monsieur Georges, you are not good. You are not behaving well. If your grandmother were to come in and see you in this condition, you would make her cry again." Having raised himself a little on the cushions: "In the first place, why do you call me 'Monsieur Georges'? You know that I do not like it." "But I cannot call you 'Monsieur Gaston'!" "Call me 'Georges' for short, naughty girl." "Oh! I could not; I could never do that!" Then he had sighed: