Catherine's coquetries

Thus shout the spectators as they watch a poor young lame girl chase, with all her energy, a young fellow of two and twenty, who makes all possible effort to elude her.

Savin Barrau was naturally a soldier. As Catherine was a beautiful woman, so was Savin a distinguished-looking man. His regular-featured face wore an expression of hauteur and v...

With tears trickling down her cheeks and suffusing her long eyelashes, the young woman put one foot before the other like an automaton, and saw nothing but the black earth under...

Three weeks later. The annual cattle show at St. Benoit is about to open. St. Benoit is the great region for fine cattle in France. From miles around the farmers and peasants as...

With these words he rested his head on Bruno’s chest. Jean Manant could hardly breathe, so deep was his dread of the possible truth; while poor little Sidonie was choked with an...

October with its kaleidoscopic dress comes on apace. Upon seeing the woods made glorious by the regal hues of gold and scarlet, we are tempted to say that the ending season is n...

A merry little troop lined the way leading into the forest. Song and mirth echoed through the trees as the happy band tripped along the road, their object being to invite the Ba...

The day of Suzanne’s wedding came, bringing with it no change for the better in the home of the Barraus. Hostility still existed. Savin was as usual sad at heart, and Catherine...

Savin was still sitting at the table. Though he had finished eating and drinking he still remained there, not wishing to move lest his wife should think he was following her to...

Sidonie, panting for breath but still determined, did not stop until she had led Bruno behind the little hedge back of the cottage. Then, astonished at her own temerity, she beg...

Bruno possessed an ardent poetic nature. In his boyhood he was a day-dreamer. While his village comrades ravaged birds’ nests, played at leap-frog, and in other ways distinguish...

At that moment Jacques Percier, with his usual stupid demeanor, came across the fields and joined them. He heard Barrau’s last words, and quite naturally inferred that Bruno als...

A strange man was Monsieur Eugène. He was rich in many good qualities, but he had one fault, or rather an unfortunate failing, which had practically destroyed those gifts of nat...

In her soul Catherine felt quite positive that Firmin would not dare perpetrate the act he had voluntarily promised to do; still she resolved to keep Savin out that night, if po...

As soon as Savin’s death was announced, Bruno resolved at once to keep away from the house. From the fact that he would be forced, perhaps, to exchange glances with Catherine, h...

Since morning Bruno had remained at home, learning the news as best he could from different sources, but not daring to go near Catherine for fear of losing his self-possession.

Sidonie, the picture of sorrow, was leaning against the trunk of a giant oak crying as though her heart would break. In her merry moods she was never at a loss for friends, but...

At three o’clock the officers, prisoners, and onlookers arrived at St. Benoit, and the examination soon commenced. It was his first criminal case, and the magistrate began proce...

She was no longer the charming, gracious woman they had known. Two days of sorrow and shame and remorse had changed her into a sad-eyed woman, and every feature betrayed the suf...