happens that Juliette is sick. Her members, overstrained by pleasure, refuse to obey her ; her constitution, worn out by nervous shocks, revolts. She takes to her bed. If you could only see her then? A child, Lirat, a sweet and touching child ! She dreams only of the country, little brooks, green prairies, simple joys : ' Oh, my dear, she exclaims, ' with ten thousand francs of income, how happy we should be ! ' She makes all sorts of Virgilian and charming plans. ' We ought to go far, far away, to live in a house surrounded by tall trees. She will raise chickens which will lay eggs she herself will take out of the hatching place every morning; she will make cream, cheese; and she will wear aprons like this and straw hats like that, jogging along pathways astride a donkey that she will call Joseph. Geeho ! Joseph, Geeho ! Ah, how nice it will be ! '

" When I hear her say that, I feel hope returning and I let myself be taken in by that impossible dream of a rustic life with Juliette disguised as a shepherdess. Quiet landscapes like places of refuge, enchanting like a paradise, unroll before us. ... and we grow exalted and enthusiastic. Juliette cries : ' My poor little thing, I have caused you suffering, but now it's all over. I promise you. And then I am going to have a trained ram, am I not? A beautiful ram, very big, all white, around whom I shall tie a bow of red ribbon, and who will follow me everywhere together with Spy, not so, dear?' She insists that I have my dinner in front of her bed, on a little table, and she coddles me like a nurse and caresses me like a mother ; she makes me eat as one does a child, repeating without end and with agitation in her voice : ' My poor little thing ! '

" At other moments she becomes thoughtful and grave : ' My dear, I would like to ask you something