Hesitatingly he approached, trying secretly to wipe his boots in the moss, for the soil of the fields was sticking to them.
She on her part had only this moment perceived that her feet and white stockings showed beneath her dress, and hastily tried to cover them with the shawl which had been put round her shoulders. But she could not pull it from under her arms, and she could think of nothing better than to crouch down quickly so that she looked like a hen, while the hammock swayed to and fro.
Perhaps she might have had the intention to impress him a little with her elegance and freshly-acquired social education, but now, as fate would have it, she did not look at him less blushingly or shyly than he at her.
On his side he observed nothing of her state of mind; he only saw that she had grown very beautiful, that her hair was twisted up into a very aristocratic knot, and that the bow at her bosom trembled slightly on her rounded form. It was quite clear to him that she had now grown into a lady.
A long while elapsed before either of them spoke a word.
“Good-day,” she said, at last, with a little laugh, and stretched out her right hand to him, for she soon saw that she had the best of it.
He was silent and smiled at her.
“Help me to pull out my shawl,” she continued.
He did so.
“That’s it; now turn round.”