He threw his arms about the young man and was off on a run for the farm. He entered like one distraught, bent over his mother's hands, and covering them with kisses, murmuring half-finished phrases. Esperance was beside the Countess. He stood an instant in silence before her, looking at her questioningly. Blushing and embarrassed the young girl held out her hands to him and replied low to the question in his eyes, "Yes." Then he bent over her hand, and his lips murmured, "I thank you, Esperance, oh! I thank you." They all pressed the hands of the two fiancés. Mlle. Frahender and Genevieve kissed Esperance tenderly. The Baron thundered in his military voice, "There has been no battle, and yet here is the breath of victory. That is very good, but a little stifling. Let us have some air!" The good man had expressed the general sentiment. The Darbois, Mlle. Frahender and Jean were sitting in the shade of a little thicket of low, dark-needled pines and other trees with foliage green like water. Climbing flowers interlaced in the branches, making flecks of pink and white and violet. It was an ideal refuge from the heat and the wind. Maurice and Genevieve walked on ahead. Esperance and Albert sat down on the high point of rock that dominated the little landscape. For an instant they looked quietly without speaking. Albert broke this restless silence, and said, as he took Esperance's hand, "I love you, Esperance, and I will do all that is in my power or beyond it to make you happy." "I believe you, Albert, and I hope to be worthy of so devoted a love." He looked at her very penetratingly. "I know that you are not yet in love with me." "I do not know just how I love you, my dear, but I should always have turned to you if I had been in trouble." "Have you never been in love?" "No, I have been and am deeply touched by Jean Perliez's devotion, but I have never thought of the possibility of being happy with him." "And the other?" asked Albert, looking straight at her with his clear eyes. She did not answer at once. "The Duke?" "Yes, the Duke." "I do not love him," she answered frightened. "At moments I even hate him, and...." "And?" insisted the young man, pressing the hand he was still holding. "... I am happy to be your fiancée!!!" Her voice vibrated, her eyes were tender with gratitude. During the dinner Countess Styvens announced that she must go next day. "I will take my mother to Brussels," said Albert, "and if you will permit me, I will return immediately." The dinner was very gay, for they were all happy. Esperance herself, so restless, so disturbed only that morning, talked animatedly, keeping them all delighted with her grace and indefinable charm. Genevieve was astonished, doubting for a little while whether she was simply purposely creating a false excitement. But no, she was really happy. Baron van Berger rose for a little toast.