A feeling of oppression and drowsiness overcame Edna during the service.

Her head began to ache, and the lights on the altar swayed before

her eyes. Another time she might have made an effort to regain her

composure; but her one thought was to quit the stifling atmosphere of

the church and reach the open air. She arose, climbing over Robert's

feet with a muttered apology. Old Monsieur Farival, flurried, curious,

stood up, but upon seeing that Robert had followed Mrs. Pontellier, he

sank back into his seat. He whispered an anxious inquiry of the lady in

black, who did not notice him or reply, but kept her eyes fastened upon

the pages of her velvet prayer-book.

"I felt giddy and almost overcome," Edna said, lifting her hands

instinctively to her head and pushing her straw hat up from her

forehead. "I couldn't have stayed through the service." They were

outside in the shadow of the church. Robert was full of solicitude.

"It was folly to have thought of going in the first place, let alone

staying. Come over to Madame Antoine's; you can rest there." He took her

arm and led her away, looking anxiously and continuously down into her

face.

How still it was, with only the voice of the sea whispering through the

reeds that grew in the salt-water pools! The long line of little gray,

weather-beaten houses nestled peacefully among the orange trees. It must

always have been God's day on that low, drowsy island, Edna thought.

They stopped, leaning over a jagged fence made of sea-drift, to ask

for water. A youth, a mild-faced Acadian, was drawing water from the

cistern, which was nothing more than a rusty buoy, with an opening on

one side, sunk in the ground. The water which the youth handed to them

in a tin pail was not cold to taste, but it was cool to her heated face,

and it greatly revived and refreshed her.

Madame Antoine's cot was at the far end of the village. She welcomed

them with all the native hospitality, as she would have opened her door

to let the sunlight in. She was fat, and walked heavily and clumsily

across the floor. She could speak no English, but when Robert made her

understand that the lady who accompanied him was ill and desired to

rest, she was all eagerness to make Edna feel at home and to dispose of

her comfortably.

The whole place was immaculately clean, and the big, four-posted bed,

snow-white, invited one to repose. It stood in a small side room which

looked out across a narrow grass plot toward the shed, where there was a

disabled boat lying keel upward.




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