In a little while, on the fringe of the sky just where the blue began, rose the evening star. Alone, faint but dominating as an idea. Jean rose; the night was becoming quite dark, and he took the path which follows the crest of the hills; but he could not take his eyes from the star. Walking all alone in the deep silence, on the summit of the divided Vosges, he said to the star and to the shadow beneath: "I belong to you; I am happy to have seen you. It frightens me to love you as I do!" Soon he reached the frontier, and by the magnificent road crossing the Schlucht, went back again into the German-land. The following day, the Tuesday of Holy Week, he was again at Alsheim, and handed to his father the report he had drawn up. Every one welcomed his return with such evident pleasure that he was very much touched by it. The evening after the "conference" between the old grandfather and the manufacturer, and at which Jean was present, since he had just returned from visiting the cuttings, Lucienne called her brother to the fire before which she was warming herself in the large yellow drawing-room. Madame Oberlé was reading near the window; her husband had gone out, the coachman having informed him that one of the horses had gone lame. "Well!" asked Lucienne. "What is the most beautiful thing you saw?" "You." "No, do not joke; tell me, the most beautiful thing during your journey?" "France!" "Where?" "At the Schlucht. You cannot imagine the emotion it made me feel. It was a shock--like a revelation. You do not seem to understand me." She answered in an indifferent manner: "Yes; I am delighted that you were pleased. It ought to be a very fine excursion at this time of the year. The first spring flowers, are there not? And the breeze in the woods? Ah, my dear boy, there is so much convention in all that!" Jean did not go on. She it was who continued, and in a confidential voice, which she modulated, and made marvellously musical: "Here we've had grand visits--oh, visits which nearly cost a scene. Imagine, two German officers came last Wednesday in a motor car to the lodge, and asked permission to see the saw-mills. Happily they were in mufti. The Alsheim people only saw two gentlemen like any others. Very fashionable; an old one--a commandant, and a young one with a grand air, and accustomed to society. If you had seen him bow to papa! I was in the park. They bowed to me too, and visited the whole of the works, personally conducted by our father. While this was going on that idiot Victor informed grandfather, who showed he was annoyed when we came in. I ought to have run away, it appears. As the gentlemen did not enter the house--'my house,' as grandfather says--his irritation did not last long. However, there was a sequel----" Lucienne laughed a little stifled laugh. "My dear, Madame Bastian did not approve of me." "You were then present during their visit to the works, when these gentlemen----" "Yes." "All the time?"