What bliss for Emile, after believing that when he saw Gilberte again, she would be stern and distrustful of him, to find her as he had left her the day before, entirely without constraint and overflowing with dignified trustfulness! And how he loved Antoine for being incapable of a suspicion and for displaying the same open-hearted gayety. Never had he felt so light-hearted himself; never had he seen a lovelier day than that mild September day, never a more cheerful and enchanted spot than that frowning fortress of Crozant! And Gilberte wore that day her lilac dress, which he had not seen for a long while, and which reminded him of the day and hour when he had fallen madly in love with her! He learned that they had set out to visit a relative at La Clavière before going to Argenton for two days, and that, finding no one at that château, they had determined to make a detour to Crozant and remain there until evening; and it was only midday! Emile imagined that he had all eternity before him. Monsieur Antoine lay down in the shade after luncheon and slept soundly. The two lovers, followed by Charasson, undertook to make the circuit of the fortress. XXI MONSIEUR ANTOINE'S NAP The page of Châteaubrun amused the young couple for a few moments with his ingenuous remarks; but he was speedily vanquished by the longing to run, and started off in pursuit of the goats, narrowly escaped having trouble with their keepers, and ended by making it up with them and playing at quoits on the bank of the Creuse, while Emile and Gilberte attempted to follow the course of the Sédelle on the other side of the mountain. As the torrent has eaten away the base of the cliff in many places, they had sometimes to crawl, sometimes to retrace their steps, sometimes to step on stones that were level with the water, and all of this not without some difficulty and some danger. But youth is adventurous and love is afraid of nothing. A special providence protects both alike, and our lovers came bravely forth from all the perils of their undertaking,--Emile trembling with an emotion very different from fear when he lifted Gilberte or held her in his arms; Gilberte laughing to conceal her confusion or to forget it. Gilberte was strong, active and brave, like a true child of the mountain; and yet, by dint of passing over a constant succession of obstacles, she became breathless, sank on the moss beside the leaping stream, and threw her hat on the grass, having to put up her hair which had fallen over her shoulders. "Do go and pick me that lovely digitalis over yonder," she said to Emile, thinking that she would have time to rearrange her locks before he returned. But he went and came again so quickly that he found her still inundated by the golden flood which her little hands could hardly gather up into a single braid.