Ah! that room of battle and victory, it seemed radiant with triumphant
glory. Elsewhere was death, darkness, shame, and crime, but here holy
suffering had led to joy and pride, hope and trustfulness in the coming
future. One single being born, a poor bare wee creature, raising the
faint cry of a chilly fledgeling, and life's immense treasure was
increased and eternity insured. Mathieu remembered one warm balmy spring
night when, yonder at Chantebled, all the perfumes of fruitful nature had
streamed into their room in the little hunting-box, and now around him
amid equal rapture he beheld the ardent sunlight flaring, chanting the
poem of eternal life that sprang from love the eternal.



VII

"I TELL you that I don't need Zoe to give the child a bath," exclaimed
Mathieu half in anger. "Stay in bed, and rest yourself!"

"But the servant must get the bath ready," replied Marianne, "and bring
you some warm water."

She laughed as if amused by the dispute, and he ended by laughing also.

Two days previously they had re-installed themselves in the little
pavilion on the verge of the woods near Janville which they rented from
the Seguins. So impatient, indeed, were they to find themselves once more
among the fields that in spite of the doctor's advice Marianne had made
the journey but fifteen days after giving birth to her little boy.
However, a precocious springtide brought with it that March such balmy