THE AKRIYAL. 319 



The sun has disappeared behind the high trees some minutes 

 since, so that I should not have recognised the fennel and the 

 Angelica if I had not been pretty well acquainted with them. 

 The weather is hot and close : this is a capital opportunity 

 for testing the phenomenon of the fraxinella. 



" Varai, bring me a taper." 



" Monsieur, there is somebody knocking at the garden-gate.'' 



" Give me the taper then, and go and open it." 



" Monsieur, I have lit the taper twice, and twice the wind 

 has' extinguished it. Only hear how they are knocking !" 



In fact, somebody did knock — almost enough to break 

 the gate down. 



" Varai, go and open it, pray." A man presents himself, 

 whom at first I did not recognise. 



" Well, Stephen, my good fellow, what a while it is since I 



have seen thee ! I am going to , and I could not 



pass so near thy hermitage without passing a few days with 

 thee." 



Only at this moment I recognised Edmond. You know, 

 my dear friend, or else you do not know, what Edmond I 

 mean. Perhaps, like me, it would be necessary for you to 

 have him before your^yes to remember that he exists. He 

 had never taken the liberty to tutoyer me in his life.* I 

 remember that he once borrowed a few livres of me, of which 

 he never said anything since. Nevertheless, he gave his 

 valise to my servant, and said, " Thingummy ! What's your 

 name? Pay the coachman, and give him something to 

 drink. Ah ! by-the-bye, Stephen, I can't think why thou 

 dost not get the road put to rights that leads hither, that is, 

 if thou canst call it a road ; it's enough to break one's back. 

 Fortunately, I have not my horses here. I have left them 

 at the top of the hill. Hast thou dined?" 



I had been for some time endeavouring to recover fVom the 

 stupor into which this arrival or rather this invasion had 

 plunged me, and I racked my invention for a sentence in 

 which there should be neither a thou nor a you, not being 



* We scarcely need remind our readers that the French reserve thee and thou for 

 relatives, intimate friends, or persons they highly value. It is so completely a 

 national custom, that in translating this scene it is impossible to find a substitute, 

 for an equivalent for it. — Trams. 



