..?"
Esperance smiled delightfully.
"Suppose we have lunch there," said Maurice.
"Papa would be left alone too long, and I want to see if M. Styvens
can fish as well as ride. We will come back to pull up the nets about
five o'clock, and then we will have tea in the boat."
The carriage was ready, the horses saddled. The Count had the pleasure
of assisting the young actress to mount, and then Esperance and
Maurice set out together, followed by the brake. The Count and Jean
Perliez took a more roundabout and a steeper way. Albert wanted to
study the character of his horse. The first to arrive at Port-Herlin
were to await the others, and together they were to go to visit old
Mother Borderie.
The dwelling was one of the White Breton houses with thatched roof.
There were three rooms, the kitchen, where one entered, and two little
rooms. In the first, fitted in the wall one above the other were two
narrow beds edged with carved wood; in the second room, four similar
beds. Large bunches of box, which had been blessed, ornamented the
beds where the woman's four children had died. The father of the
little grandson was the last to go. The kitchen was unlighted except
when the door was open. The bedrooms had each one narrow opening like
a loophole.
The old woman was sitting beside the hearth, by the side of which was
an armful of furze. The evening meal was slowly cooking in a marmite
suspended from a hook.
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