It did not take me long to regain my senses, however. They put me to bed and Juliette, bent over me, embraced me, crying: "Ah! Poor little thing. How you frightened me! How pale you still are! Is it all over, tell me? Speak to me, my Jean!" I did nothing but look at her. It seemed as though my whole being, inert and rigid, smitten by a powerful blow, by some great suffering or happiness--I did not know which--had brought back and crowded into my glance all the life forces leaving me, dripping from my limbs, my veins, my heart, my brains.... I was looking at her! She was still beautiful, a little paler than in the past, but on the whole the same as ever, with her beautiful, sweet eyes, her lovely mouth, her deliciously childish voice. In her countenance, her gestures, the movements of her body, her words I wanted to find some sorrowful traces of her unknown existence, some blemish, some evidence of depravity, something new and more withered. But no, she was paler, and that was all. And I burst into tears. "Sit still, I want to look at you more, my little Juliette!" She drank in my tears and wept, holding me in a close embrace. "My Jean! Ah, my adored Jean!" Mother Le Gannec rapped at the door of the room. She did not speak to Juliette, pretending not to see her. "What shall I do with the trunks, friend Mintié?" she asked. "Have some one bring them up here, Mother Le Gannec." "You could not bring them all up here," the old woman harshly replied. "Have you got many of them, dearie?" "Many? Why no! There are only six. These people are stupid!" "Well, Mother Le Gannec," I said, "keep them downstairs tonight. We shall see tomorrow." I got up, while Juliette examined the room, occasionally exclaiming: "Why, it's so nice here! There's a lot of fun here, my dear. And you have a bed, too, a real bed. And I thought they slept in wardrobes in Brittany! Ah! What is that? Don't stir, Jean, don't stir." From the mantlepiece she took a large shell and put it to her ear. "Wait!" she said with disappointment. "Wait now, it does not make that sh-sh-sh sound. Why is that?" She suddenly rushed into my arms and covered me with kisses. "Ah! your beard! You are growing whiskers, you villain! Ah how long your hair is! And how thin you are! And I, have I changed much! Am I still beautiful?" She placed her arms around my neck and rested her head on my shoulder: "Tell me what you have been doing here, how you have spent your time, what you have been thinking about. Tell it all to your little wifie. And don't tell lies. Tell her everything, everything." Then I described my furious walks, my prostrations on the dune, my sobbing, the fact that I had been seeing her everywhere, calling her like a madman in the wind, in the tempest. "Poor little thing!" she sighed. "And you probably have not even a raincoat." "And you? you, my Juliette? Did you ever think of me?"