unexpected notes of caressing tenderness.
Logical in his disregard of etiquette and in violation of all rules of precedence, the host had had the happy thought, in each case, to seat a farmer's wife, the mistress of a boat, or a fish-wife, by the side of one of his peers of the oligarchy; and similarly, beside some proud lady from a neighbouring château was wedged in a young dairyman of swaggering manner, or a boatman boasting knotty biceps.
Kehlmark's friends remarked that almost all the guests were in the flower of their youth, or in the first flush of their maturity. One might have called the gathering a selection of prepossessing women and of malleable, impressionable youths.
Among the guests was to be found one of the principal agriculturists of the country, Michel Govaertz, of the farm "Les Pèlerins". He was a widower and the father of two children, Guidon and Claudie.
After the lord of Escal-Vigor, the farmer of Les Pèlerins was the most important man of Zoudbertinge village, on the territory of which was situated the country-seat of the Keklmarks.
During the minority and in the absence
