We entered the church. The young custodian took off his hat and knelt on
the floor. His thick, blond hair uncoiled and fell around his shoulders.
It clung a moment to the coarse cloth of his jacket, and then, little by
little, it separated and spread like the hair of a woman. It was parted
in the middle and hung on both sides over his shoulders and neck. The
golden mass rippled with light every time he moved his head bent in
prayer.
The little girl kneeled beside him and let her flowers fall to the
ground. For the first time in my life, I understood the beauty of a
man's locks and the fascination they may have for bare and playful arms.
A strange progress, indeed, is that which consists in curtailing
everywhere the grand superfetations nature has bestowed upon us, so that
whenever we discover them in all their virgin splendour, they are a
revelation to us.
CHAPTER VII.
PONT-L'ABBE.
At five o'clock in the evening, we arrived at Pont-l'Abbe, covered with
quite a respectable coating of mud and dust, which fell from our
clothing upon the floor of the inn with such disastrous abundance, every
time we moved, that we were almost mortified at the mess we made.
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