As I proposed walking over the hills opposite our dwelling,
which we had not yet visited, we sent our provisions on before; the
excursion being to last the whole day. Madam de Warrens, though rather
corpulent, did not walk ill, and we rambled from hill to hill and wood
to wood, sometimes in the sun, but oftener in the shade, resting
from time to time, and regardless how the hours stole away; speaking
of ourselves, of our union, of the gentleness of our fate, and
offering up prayers for its duration, which were never heard.
Everything conspired to augment our happiness: it had rained for
several days previous to this, there was no dust, the brooks were full
and rapid, a gentle breeze agitated the leaves, the air was pure,
the horizon free from clouds, serenity reigned in the sky as in our
hearts. Our dinner was prepared at a peasant's house, and shared
with him and his family, whose benedictions we received. These poor
Savoyards are the worthiest of people! After dinner we regained the
shade, and while I was picking up bits of dried sticks, to boil our
coffee, Madam de Warrens amused herself with herbalizing among the
bushes, and with the flowers I had gathered for her in my way. She
made me remark in their construction a thousand natural beauties,
which greatly amused me, and which ought to have given me a taste
for botany; but the time was not yet come, and my attention was
arrested by too many other studies. Besides this, an idea struck me,
which diverted my thoughts from flowers and plants: the situation of
my mind at that moment, all that we had said or done that day, every
object that had struck me, brought to my remembrance the kind of
waking dream I had at Annecy seven or eight years before, and which
I have given an account of in its place.
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