When he stopped, the inexplicable sense of danger which had visited him had not vanished; it was alive within him. In the wood the soft night sighed sadly.... And later Marcel had reason to remember this hour when he had run through the shadows towards something intoxicating and to be feared--which was love. CHAPTER IV A MORNING AT LA CHÊNAIE “I’ve come to take away your children,” said Jean Berlier to Madame Guibert after he had shaken hands with her. “Don’t take them from me, please,” she answered softly. And she smiled her delicate sweet smile. The young man had surprised her seated under the chestnut trees at work, near the front of the old house. She had put on her spectacles to see the stitches of her needlework. Soon she called to Marcel and Paule, who were walking about in the garden at a little distance. And when they were coming down the weed-grown path she inquired almost timidly: “Are you going to La Chênaie?” “Yes,” answered Jean, “for a game of croquet or tennis.” Then, as if he regretted his words, he added: “If you like, Madame, I will say no more about it.” “Oh, no. Marcel needs diversion and exercise--he has been used to an active life. And my little Paule has lived too long with her old mother.” She never gives a thought to herself and her loneliness. Madame Guibert always welcomed Jean almost maternally. When quite a little child he had played at Le Maupas as one of her own. He was the only son of a barrister, who was the glory of the Chambéry bar. An orphan at an early age, Jean had been brought up by rather an eccentric, original old uncle, brother to the boy’s mother, who forgot everybody, even his nephew, in his devotion to his garden. This M. Loigny lived near the town, on the Cognin road, in a little house smothered in roses. He cultivated his garden and edited a guide to the names of roses. Thus every minute of his life was taken up, and he never quite knew how long it was when Jean was away on duty in the Algerian Tirailleurs. When he came home every eighteen months on leave, his uncle immediately told him all about his latest discoveries in the rose family, thereby thinking he was giving him proofs of the greatest affection! When Marcel and Paule appeared in the Avenue, Jean told them that they were expected at La Chênaie. “And too,” he said to Marcel, “you owe Madame Dulaurens a call after the Battle of Flowers, don’t you? This is a good opportunity of paying it and getting a game of croquet at the same time.” “That is true,” agreed the captain. “You will come with us, Mademoiselle Paule?” asked Jean Berlier.