The flame of the candle endangered the visitors; they threw themselves into it stupidly and singed themselves slightly.

On the morrow we could resume our study of them, and make certain carefully devised experiments.
To clear the ground a little for what is to follow, let me speak of what was repeated every night during the eight nights my observations lasted.
Every night, when it was quite dark, between eight and ten o'clock, the butterflies arrived one by one.

The weather was stormy; the sky heavily clouded; the darkness was so profound that out of doors, in the garden and away from the trees, one could scarcely see one's hand before one's face.
In addition to such darkness as this there were certain difficulties of access.

The house is hidden by great plane-trees; an alley densely bordered with lilacs and rose-trees make a kind of outer vestibule to the entrance; it is protected from the _mistral_ by groups of pines and screens of cypress.

A thicket of evergreen shrubs forms a rampart at a few paces from the door.