He had noticed a large deserted enclosure, and fancied that he could see himself within it at twenty years of age.

His reverie was wandering.

An indisposition of rather long duration had, however, at one time interrupted his studies, and led to his being sent into the country.

He had remained for a long time without seeing Marie; during his vacations spent at Neuilly he had twice failed to meet her, for she was almost always travelling.

He knew that she was very ill, in consequence of a fall from a horse when she was thirteen, a critical moment in a girl's life; and her despairing mother, perplexed by the contradictory advice of medical men, was taking her each year to a different watering-place.