"Ah! I love you, Denise, more than I ever loved! my feeling for you is a hundred times sweeter and fonder than the passions which have led me into so many follies. You are only a peasant, you say! but your virtues and your good qualities make you the equal of a great lady, even though you had not in addition such lovely features, such charming ways, and a melting voice that goes to one's very heart!" "You love me! Oh! how happy I am! Then you will take me for your wife?" Auguste gazed tenderly at her, and said at last: "You shall have my reply to-morrow, Denise." "To-morrow! Why not at once? Do you need to reflect about it?" The girl said no more. During the rest of the evening Auguste seemed more affectionate, more in love than ever; his eyes, which were constantly fixed on Denise, expressed the most genuine passion, and when he left her, to return to his summer-house, he pressed her to his heart and seemed unable to tear himself from her arms. He left her at last, and Denise said to herself: "Oh! he will certainly marry me! but why not say so at once?" She did not sleep; she was too excited to close her eyes. In default of dreams, her imagination conjured up a thousand delightful pictures: she saw herself the chosen companion of the man she loved; she passed the rest of her days with him. So charming a future is surely not inferior to the pleasantest dreams, and we do not try to sleep when we possess the reality of happiness. Day broke at last. Denise rose and spent a longer time than usual at her toilet. That is a venial offence when a woman knows that she is going into the presence of the man whom she wishes to call her husband. She left her room and went into the garden, where she found Auguste every morning; but he was not there, and the girl was surprised that he was still asleep; for she thought that he must have been unable to sleep, like herself, and that he would be in haste to see her. She seated herself in the shrubbery where they had talked the night before. She could see the summer-house from there, and she waited impatiently for Auguste to come out. But the door did not open, and at last Coco, whom Denise had not yet seen, came running toward her with a letter in his hand. "Here, my dear Denise, my kind friend gave me this for you," he said, holding out the letter. "Your kind friend! Why, have you seen Monsieur Auguste already?" "Oh, yes! he was up before sunrise." "Where is he now, then?" "He kissed me and then he went away; I don't know where he went." Denise had a presentiment of evil; she opened the letter with a trembling hand and read: