She took the bouquet from him, and, kneeling down,
placed it on the grave. Then she offered up a
silent, heartfelt prayer.
Behind her stood her husband, overcome by recollections
of the past.
She rose, and held out her hands to him.
“If you wish it, we will be friends,”
she said.
With the first day of spring, when the awakening earth
puts on its garment of green, and the warm, fragrant
air fans our faces and fills our lungs and appears
even to penetrate to our hearts, we experience a vague,
undefined longing for freedom, for happiness, a desire
to run, to wander aimlessly, to breathe in the spring.
The previous winter having been unusually severe,
this spring feeling was like a form of intoxication
in May, as if there were an overabundant supply of
sap.
One morning on waking I saw from my window the blue
sky glowing in the sun above the neighboring houses.
The canaries hanging in the windows were singing loudly,
and so were the servants on every floor; a cheerful
noise rose up from the streets, and I went out, my
spirits as bright as the day, to go—I did
not exactly know where. Everybody I met seemed
to be smiling; an air of happiness appeared to pervade
everything in the warm light of returning spring.
One might almost have said that a breeze of love was
blowing through the city, and the sight of the young
women whom I saw in the streets in their morning toilets,
in the depths of whose eyes there lurked a hidden
tenderness, and who walked with languid grace, filled
my heart with agitation.
Without knowing how or why, I found myself on the
banks of the Seine. Steamboats were starting
for Suresnes, and suddenly I was seized by an unconquerable
desire to take a walk through the woods. The deck
of the Mouche was covered with passengers, for the
sun in early spring draws one out of the house, in
spite of themselves, and everybody moves about, goes
and comes and talks to his neighbor.
I had a girl neighbor; a little work-girl, no doubt,
who possessed the true Parisian charm: a little
head, with light curly hair, which looked like a shimmer
of light as it danced in the wind, came down to her
ears, and descended to the nape of her neck, where
it became such fine, light-colored clown that one
could scarcely see it, but felt an irresistible desire
to shower kisses on it.
Under my persistent gaze, she turned her head toward
me, and then immediately looked down, while a slight
crease at the side of her mouth, that was ready to
break out into a smile, also showed a fine, silky,
pale down which the sun was gilding a little.
The calm river grew wider; the atmosphere was warm
and perfectly still, but a murmur of life seemed to
fill all space.
My neighbor raised her eyes again, and this time,
as I was still looking at her, she smiled decidedly.
She was charming, and in her passing glance I saw
a thousand things, which I had hitherto been ignorant
of, for I perceived unknown depths, all the charm
of tenderness, all the poetry which we dream of, all
the happiness which we are continually in search of.
I felt an insane longing to open my arms and to carry
her off somewhere, so as to whisper the sweet music
of words of love into her ears.
