Seeing her husband, she dropped her hands into the drawer of the bureau as though looking for something, and only looked round at him when he had come quite up to her.

But her face, to which she tried to give a severe and resolute expression, betrayed bewilderment and suffering.

"Dolly!" he said in a subdued and timid voice.

He bent his head towards his shoulder and tried to look pitiful and humble, but for all that he was radiant with freshness and health.

In a rapid glance she scanned his figure that beamed with health and freshness.