smile soon returned to her lip, and joy sparkled in her eyes, for this was the
morning of the day on which she and Rudy were to be married, and the sun
was shining brightly. Rudy was already in the parlor when she entered it,
and they very soon started for Villeneuve. Both of them were overflowing
with happiness, and the miller was in the best of tempers, laughing and
merry; he was a good, honest soul, and a kind father.
“Now we are masters of the house,” said the parlor-cat.
XV. The Conclusion
It was early in the afternoon, and just at dinner-time, when the three
joyous travellers reached Villeneuve. After dinner, the miller placed himself
in the arm-chair, smoked his pipe, and had a little nap. The bridal pair went
arm-in-arm out through the town and along the high road, at the foot of the
wood-covered rocks, and by the deep, blue lake.
The gray walls, and the heavy clumsy-looking towers of the gloomy
castle of Chillon, were reflected in the clear flood. The little island, on
which grew the three acacias, lay at a short distance, looking like a bouquet
rising from the lake. “How delightful it must be to live there,” said Babette,
who again felt the greatest wish to visit the island; and an opportunity
offered to gratify her wish at once, for on the shore lay a boat, and the rope
by which it was moored could be very easily loosened. They saw no one
near, so they took possession of it without asking permission of any one,
and Rudy could row very well. The oars divided the pliant water like the
fins of a fish-that water which, with all its yielding softness, is so strong to
bear and to carry, so mild and smiling when at rest, and yet so terrible in its
destroying power. A white streak of foam followed in the wake of the boat,
which, in a few minutes, carried them both to the little island, where they
went on shore; but there was only just room enough for two to dance. Rudy
swung Babette round two or three times; and then, hand-in-hand, they sat
down on a little bench under the drooping acacia-tree, and looked into each
other’s eyes, while everything around them glowed in the rays of the setting
sun.
