ecstasy of his sudden revolt. Soulless he would feel and
completely disburdened, like a creature reborn into
liberation. And the sun would begin to swing to the
west, then to drop very slowly towards the mountains,
then more quickly until on a sudden it had sunk, a
red disc behind the black peaks of the Maures, leaving
the sky and the sea to flame, so that the wings of the
homing birds would be touched with a transient,
unearthly glory. Looking up the boy would observe
the stars, faint as yet because of the after-glow, and
turning he would start to swim back to the shore, but
regretfully and without resignation.
§5
In such moods Christophe often sought out Eusebe,
and together they would walk up to the vineyards.
To reach them they must pass by Mireio's grave, now
hidden beneath a tangle of shrubs — those aromatic
Provencal shrubs whose perfume still faintly disturbed
the Cure. No stone marked the place where Mireio lay
but beside it there rose up a round, grey boulder, so
that Christophe could easily find the spot, only
sometimes these days he would not want to find it
and would turn his face resolutely aside —- there was
pain in the memory of Mireio.
Eusebe would watch the boy with interest: 'Caspi!'
he would murmur which meant very little; he fre-
quently murmured cCaspi? to his vines when he peered
at them, taking stock of their progress, and now he
would peer at the boy at his side, attentively but
never unkindly.
Christophe was allowing his cropped hair to grow,
and released from the clippers it sprang up quite
briskly. Its colour had darkened since his earliest
youth; Eusebe observed that it looked almost auburn.
He also observed that Christophers pale eyes in his
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