Abbe Mouret's Transgression

Chapter 11

'Are we never going out again?' asked Serge some days later.

And when he saw Albine shrug her shoulders with a weary air, he added,

in a teasing kind of way, 'You have got tired of looking for your tree,

then?'

They joked about the tree all day and made fun of it. It didn't exist.

It was only a nursery-story. Yet they both spoke of it with a slight

feeling of awe. And on the morrow they settled that they would go to the

far end of the park and pay a visit to the great forest-trees which

Serge had not yet seen. Albine refused to take anything along with them.

They breakfasted before starting and did not set off till late. The heat

of the sun, which was then great, brought them a feeling of languor, and

they sauntered along gently, side by side, seeking every patch of

sheltering