The leaves, just nipped with the frost, were dropping softly to the ground, and formed little green heaps at the base of the trees.

Julien dressed himself hurriedly, and descended to the courtyard, where the first thing he saw was the cabriolet, which had been brought in the early morning and which one of the farm-boys was in the act of sousing with water in the hope of freeing the hood and wheels from the thick mud which covered them.

When he entered the diningroom, brightened by the rosy rays of the morning sun, he found Reine Vincart there before him.

She was dressed in a yellow striped woolen skirt, and a jacket of white flannel carelessly belted at the waist.

Her dark chestnut hair, parted down the middle and twisted into a loose knot behind, lay in ripples round her smooth, open forehead.
"Good-morning, Monsieur de Buxieres," said she, in her cordial tone, "did you sleep well?
Yes?
I am glad.