‘A pleasant piece of foolery, at any rate,’ he said.  ’Jeanbernat, you are a deceiver.  I suspect you are in love, in spite of your affectation of being blase.  You were speaking very tenderly of the trees and stones just now.’

‘Oh, no, I assure you,’ murmured the old man, ’I have done with that.  At one time, it’s true, when I first knew you and used to go herborising with you, I was stupid enough to love all sorts of things I came across in that huge liar, the country.  Fortunately, the old volumes have killed all that.  I only wish my garden was smaller; I don’t go out into the road twice a year.  You see that bench?  That’s where I spend all my time, just watching my lettuces grow.’

‘And what about your rounds in the park?’ broke in the doctor.

‘In the park!’ repeated Jeanbernat, with a look of profound surprise.  ’Why, it’s more than twelve years since I set foot in it!  What do you suppose I could do inside that cemetery?  It’s too big.  It’s stupid, what with those endless trees and moss everywhere and broken statues, and holes in which one might break one’s neck at every step.  The last time I went in there, it was so dark under the trees, there was such a stink of wild flowers, and such queer breezes blew along the paths, that I felt almost afraid.  So I have shut myself up to prevent the park coming in here.  A patch of sunlight, three feet of lettuce before me, and a big hedge shutting out all the view, why, that’s more than enough for happiness.  Nothing, that’s what I’d like, nothing at all, something so tiny that nothing from outside could come to disturb me.  Seven feet of earth, if you like, just to be able to croak on my back.’

He struck the table with his fist, and suddenly raised his voice to call out to Abbe Mouret:  ’Come, just another glass, your reverence.  The old gentleman isn’t at the bottom of the bottle, you know.’

The priest felt ill at ease.  To lead back to God that singular old man, whose reason seemed to him to be strangely disordered, appeared a task beyond his powers.  He now remembered certain bits of gossip he had heard from La Teuse about the Philosopher, as the peasants of Les Artaud dubbed Jeanbernat.  Scraps of scandalous stories vaguely floated in his memory.  He rose, making a sign to the doctor that he wished to leave this house, where he seemed to inhale an odour of damnation.  But, in spite of his covert fears, a strange feeling of curiosity made him linger.  He simply walked to the end of the garden, throwing a searching glance into the vestibule, as if to see beyond it, behind the walls.  All he could perceive, however, through the gaping doorway, was the black staircase.  So he came back again, and sought for some hole, some glimpse of that sea of foliage which he knew was near by the mighty murmur that broke upon the house, like the sound of waves.

‘And is the little one well?’ asked the doctor, taking up his hat.