Page:Gide - Strait is the Gate.pdf/230

STRAIT IS THE GATE 228

my manner of living in Paris, my occupations, my acquaintances; what was my business in the South? Why shouldn't I go on to Aigues-Vives, where Edouard would be so happy to see me? ... Then she gave me news of all the family, talked of her husband, her children, her brother, of the last vintage, of the fall prices. ... I learnt that Robert had sold Fongueusemare in order to live at Aigues-Vives; that he was now Edouard's partner, which left her husband free to travel, and in particular to look after the commercial side of the business, whilst Robert stayed on the land, improving and increasing the plantations. In the meantime I was uneasily looking round for anything that might recall the past. I recgonised, indeed, amongst the otherwise new furniture of the drawing-room , certain pieces that came from Fongueusemare; but of the past which was quivering within me, Juliette now seemed to be oblivious, or else to be endeavouring to distract our thoughts from it. Two boys of twelve and thirteen were playing on the stairs; she called them in to introduce them to me. Lise, the eldest of her children, had gone with her father to Aigues-Vives . Another boy of ten was expected in from his walk;it was he whose