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Mark Ryan

MANNING
 month: InputLayer

embedding_3: Embedding daym: InputLayer

batch_normalization_3: BatchNormalization embedding_4: Embedding

flatten_3: Flatten batch_normalization_4: BatchNormalization day: InputLayer

dropout_3: Dropout flatten_4: Flatten embedding_6: Embedding

A concatenate_2: Concatenate dropout_4: Dropout batch_normalization_6: BatchNormalization

concatenate_3: Concatenate flatten_6: Flatten

B concatenate_4: Concatenate dropout_6: Dropout

concatenate_5: Concatenate

dense: Dense

Output of plot_model showing the layers in the model

Deep Learning with Structured Data
Deep Learning with
Structured Data

MARK RYAN

MANNING
SHELTER ISLAND
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ISBN 9781617296727
Printed in the United States of America
 To my daughter, Josephine,
who always reminds me that God is the Author.
 brief contents
1 ■ Why deep learning with structured data? 1
2 ■ Introduction to the example problem and Pandas
dataframes 18
3 ■ Preparing the data, part 1: Exploring and cleansing the
data 45
4 ■ Preparing the data, part 2: Transforming the data 67
5 ■ Preparing and building the model 87
6 ■ Training the model and running experiments 120
7 ■ More experiments with the trained model 150
8 ■ Deploying the model 161
9 ■ Recommended next steps 192

vii
 contents
preface xv
acknowledgments xvii
about this book xviii
about the author xxii
about the cover illustration xxiii

1 Why deep learning with structured data? 1

1.1 Overview of deep learning 2
1.2 Benefits and drawbacks of deep learning 6
1.3 Overview of the deep learning stack 9
1.4 Structured vs. unstructured data 10
1.5 Objections to deep learning with structured data 12
1.6 Why investigate deep learning with a structured data
problem? 14
1.7 An overview of the code accompanying this book 14
1.8 What you need to know 15
1.9 Summary 16

ix
x CONTENTS

2 Introduction to the example problem and Pandas dataframes

2.1 Development environment options for deep learning 19
18

2.2 Code for exploring Pandas 21

2.3 Pandas dataframes in Python 22
2.4 Ingesting CSV files into Pandas dataframes 24
2.5 Using Pandas to do what you would do with SQL 25
2.6 The major example: Predicting streetcar delays 28
2.7 Why is a real-world dataset critical for learning about deep
learning? 30
2.8 Format and scope of the input dataset 31
2.9 The destination: An end-to-end solution 33
2.10 More details on the code that makes up the solutions 35
2.11 Development environments: Vanilla vs. deep-learning-
enabled 37
2.12 A deeper look at the objections to deep learning 38
2.13 How deep learning has become more accessible 41
2.14 A first taste of training a deep learning model 42
2.15 Summary 44

3 Preparing the data, part 1: Exploring and cleansing the data

3.1 Code for exploring and cleansing the data 46
45

3.2 Using config files with Python 46

3.3 Ingesting XLS files into a Pandas dataframe 48
3.4 Using pickle to save your Pandas dataframe from one session to
another 52
3.5 Exploring the data 54
3.6 Categorizing data into continuous, categorical, and text
categories 58
3.7 Cleaning up problems in the dataset: missing data, errors, and
guesses 60
3.8 Finding out how much data deep learning needs 65
3.9 Summary 66
 CONTENTS xi

4 Preparing the data, part 2: Transforming the data

4.1 Code for preparing and transforming the data
67
68
4.2 Dealing with incorrect values: Routes 68
4.3 Why only one substitute for all bad values? 70
4.4 Dealing with incorrect values: Vehicles 71
4.5 Dealing with inconsistent values: Location 72
4.6 Going the distance: Locations 74
4.7 Fixing type mismatches 77
4.8 Dealing with rows that still contain bad data 78
4.9 Creating derived columns 79
4.10 Preparing non-numeric data to train a deep learning
model 80
4.11 Overview of the end-to-end solution 83
4.12 Summary 86

5 Preparing and building the model

5.1
87
Data leakage and features that are fair game for training the
model 88
5.2 Domain expertise and minimal scoring tests to prevent data
leakage 89
5.3 Preventing data leakage in the streetcar delay prediction
problem 90
5.4 Code for exploring Keras and building the model 92
5.5 Deriving the dataframe to use to train the model 93
5.6 Transforming the dataframe into the format expected by the
Keras model 97
5.7 A brief history of Keras and TensorFlow 98
5.8 Migrating from TensorFlow 1.x to TensorFlow 2 99
5.9 TensorFlow vs. PyTorch 100
5.10 The structure of a deep learning model in Keras 100
5.11 How the data structure defines the Keras model 104
5.12 The power of embeddings 107
xii CONTENTS

5.13 Code to build a Keras model automatically based on the data

structure 109
5.14 Exploring your model 111
5.15 Model parameters 117
5.16 Summary 119

6 Training the model and running experiments

6.1 Code for training the deep learning model
120
121
6.2 Reviewing the process of training a deep learning model 121
6.3 Reviewing the overall goal of the streetcar delay prediction
model 124
6.4 Selecting the train, validation, and test datasets 127
6.5 Initial training run 127
6.6 Measuring the performance of your model 130
6.7 Keras callbacks: Getting the best out of your training runs 133
6.8 Getting identical results from multiple training runs 140
6.9 Shortcuts to scoring 141
6.10 Explicitly saving trained models 143
6.11 Running a series of training experiments 143
6.12 Summary 148

7 More experiments with the trained model

7.1
150
Code for more experiments with the model 151
7.2 Validating whether removing bad values improves the
model 151
7.3 Validating whether embeddings for columns improve the
performance of the model 152
7.4 Comparing the deep learning model with XGBoost 153
7.5 Possible next steps for improving the deep learning
model 159
7.6 Summary 160

8 Deploying the model

8.1
161
Overview of model deployment 162
8.2 If deployment is so important, why is it so hard? 163
 CONTENTS xiii

8.3 Review of one-off scoring 164

8.4 The user experience with web deployment 165
8.5 Steps to deploy your model with web deployment 165
8.6 Behind the scenes with web deployment 169
8.7 The user experience with Facebook Messenger
deployment 172
8.8 Behind the scenes with Facebook Messenger deployment 174
8.9 More background on Rasa 175
8.10 Steps to deploy your model in Facebook Messenger with
Rasa 177
8.11 Introduction to pipelines 180
8.12 Defining pipelines in the model training phase 183
8.13 Applying pipelines in the scoring phase 186
8.14 Maintaining a model after deployment 188
8.15 Summary 190

9 Recommended next steps

9.1
192
Reviewing what we have covered so far 193
9.2 What we could do next with the streetcar delay prediction
project 194
9.3 Adding location details to the streetcar delay prediction
project 194
9.4 Training our deep learning model with weather data 198
9.5 Adding season or time of day to the streetcar delay prediction
project 203
9.6 Imputation: An alternative to removing records with bad
values 204
9.7 Making the web deployment of the streetcar delay prediction
model generally available 204
9.8 Adapting the streetcar delay prediction model to a new
dataset 206
9.9 Preparing the dataset and training the model 209
9.10 Deploying the model with web deployment 211
9.11 Deploying the model with Facebook Messenger 212
xiv CONTENTS

9.12 Adapting the approach in this book to a different dataset 215

9.13 Resources for additional learning 219
9.14 Summary 220
appendix Using Google Colaboratory 223
index 233
 preface
I believe that when people look back in 50 years and assess the first two decades of the
century, deep learning will be at the top of the list of technical innovations. The theo-
retical foundations of deep learning were established in the 1950s, but it wasn’t until
2012 that the potential of deep learning became evident to nonspecialists. Now,
almost a decade later, deep learning pervades our lives, from smart speakers that are
able to seamlessly convert our speech into text to systems that can beat any human in
an ever-expanding range of games. This book examines an overlooked corner of the
deep learning world: applying deep learning to structured, tabular data (that is, data
organized in rows and columns).
If the conventional wisdom is to avoid using deep learning with structured data,
and the marquee applications of deep learning (such as image recognition) deal with
nonstructured data, why should you read a book about deep learning with structured
data? First, as I argue in chapters 1 and 2, some of the objections to using deep learn-
ing to solve structured data problems (such as deep learning being too complex or
structured datasets being too small) simply don’t hold water today. When we are
assessing which machine learning approach to apply to a structured data problem, we
need to keep an open mind and consider deep learning as a potential solution. Sec-
ond, although nontabular data underpins many topical application areas of deep
learning (such as image recognition, speech to text, and machine translation), our
lives as consumers, employees, and citizens are still largely defined by data in tables.
Every bank transaction, every tax payment, every insurance claim, and hundreds more
aspects of our daily existence flow through structured, tabular data. Whether you are a

xv
xvi PREFACE

newcomer to deep learning or an experienced practitioner, you owe it to yourself to

have deep learning in your toolbox when you tackle a problem that involves struc-
tured data.
By reading this book, you will learn what you need to know to apply deep learning
to a wide variety of structured data problems. You will work through a full-blown appli-
cation of deep learning to a real-world dataset, from preparing the data to training
the deep learning model to deploying the trained model. The code examples that
accompany the book are written in Python, the lingua franca of machine learning,
and take advantage of the Keras/TensorFlow framework, the most common platform
for deep learning in industry.
 acknowledgments
I have many people to thank for their support and assistance over the year and a half
that I wrote this book. First, I would like to thank the team at Manning Publications,
particularly my editor, Christina Taylor, for their masterful direction. I would like to
thank my former supervisors at IBM—in particular Jessica Rockwood, Michael Kwok,
and Al Martin—for giving me the impetus to write this book. I would like to thank my
current team at Intact for their support—in particular Simon Marchessault-Groleau,
Dany Simard, and Nicolas Beaupré. My friends have given me consistent encourage-
ment. I would like to particularly thank Dr. Laurence Mussio and Flavia Mussio, both of
whom have been unalloyed and enthusiastic supporters of my writing. Jamie Roberts,
Luc Chamberland, Alan Hall, Peter Moroney, Fred Gandolfi, and Alina Zhang have all
provided encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank my family—Steve and Carol,
John and Debby, and Nina—for their love. (“We’re a literary family, thank God.”)
To all the reviewers: Aditya Kaushik, Atul Saurav, Gary Bake, Gregory Matuszek,
Guy Langston, Hao Liu, Ike Okonkwo, Irfan Ullah, Ishan Khurana, Jared Wadsworth,
Jason Rendel, Jeff Hajewski, Jesús Manuel López Becerra, Joe Justesen, Juan Rufes,
Julien Pohie, Kostas Passadis, Kunal Ghosh, Malgorzata Rodacka, Matthias Busch,
Michael Jensen, Monica Guimaraes, Nicole Koenigstein, Rajkumar Palani, Raushan
Jha, Sayak Paul, Sean T Booker, Stefano Ongarello, Tony Holdroyd, and Vlad Navitski,
your suggestions helped make this a better book.

xvii
 about this book
This book takes you through the full journey of applying deep learning to a tabular,
structured dataset. By working through an extended, real-world example, you will
learn how to clean up a messy dataset and use it to train a deep learning model by
using the popular Keras framework. Then you will learn how to make your trained
deep learning model available to the world through a web page or a chatbot in Face-
book Messenger. Finally, you will learn how to extend and improve your deep learning
model, as well as how to apply the approach shown in this book to other problems
involving structured data.

Who should read this book

To get the most out of this book, you should be familiar with Python coding in the con-
text of Jupyter Notebooks. You should also be familiar with some non-deep-learning
machine learning approaches, such as logistic regression and support vector machines,
and be familiar with the standard vocabulary of machine learning. Finally, if you regu-
larly work with data that is organized in tables as rows and columns, you will find it easiest
to apply the concepts in this book to your work.

How this book is organized: A roadmap

This book is made up of nine chapters and one appendix:
■
Chapter 1 includes a quick review of the high-level concepts of deep learning
and a summary of why (and why not) you would want to apply deep learning to
structured data. It also explains what I mean by structured data.

xviii
 ABOUT THIS BOOK xix

■
Chapter 2 explains the development environments you can use for the code
example in this book. It also introduces the Python library for tabular, struc-
tured data (Pandas) and describes the major example used throughout the rest
of the book: predicting delays on a light-rail transit system. This example is the
streetcar delay prediction problem. Finally, chapter 2 previews the details that
are coming in later chapters with a quick run through a simple example of
training a deep learning model.
■
Chapter 3 explores the dataset for the major example and describes how to deal
with a set of problems in the dataset. It also examines the question of how much
data is required to train a deep learning model.
■
Chapter 4 covers how to address additional problems in the dataset and what to
do with bad values that remain in the data after all the cleanup. It also shows
how to prepare non-numeric data to train a deep learning model. Chapter 4
wraps up with a summary of the end-to-end code example.
■
Chapter 5 describes the process of preparing and building the deep learning
model for the streetcar delay prediction problem. It explains the problem of
data leakage (training the model with data that won’t be available when you
want to make a prediction with the model) and how to avoid it. Then the chap-
ter walks through the details of the code that makes up the deep learning
model and shows you options for examining the structure of the model.
■
Chapter 6 explains the end-to-end model training process, from selecting sub-
sets of the input dataset to train and test the model, to conducting your first
training run, to iterating through a set of experiments to improve the perfor-
mance of the trained model.
■
Chapter 7 expands on the model training techniques introduced in chapter 6
by conducting three more in-depth experiments. The first experiment proves
that one of the cleanup steps from chapter 4 (removing records with invalid val-
ues) improves the performance of the model. The second experiment demon-
strates the performance benefit of associating learned vectors (embeddings)
with categorical columns. Finally, the third experiment compares the perfor-
mance of the deep learning model with the performance of a popular non-
deep learning approach, XGBoost.
■
Chapter 8 provides details on how you can make your trained deep learning
model useful to the outside world. First, it describes how to do a simple web
deployment of a trained model. Then it describes how to deploy a trained
model in Facebook Messenger by using the Rasa open source chatbot
framework.
■
Chapter 9 starts with a summary of what’s been covered in the book. Then it
describes additional data sources that could improve the performance of the
model, including location and weather data. Next, it describes how to adapt the
code accompanying the book to tackle a completely new problem in tabular,
structured data. The chapter wraps up with a list of additional books, courses,
xx ABOUT THIS BOOK

and online resources for learning more about deep learning with structured
data.
■
The appendix describes how you can use the free Colab environment to run
the code examples that accompany the book.
I suggest that you read this book sequentially, because each chapter builds on the con-
tent in the preceding chapters. You will get the most out of the book if you execute
the code samples that accompany the book—in particular the code for the streetcar
delay prediction problem. Finally, I strongly encourage you to exercise the experi-
ments described in chapters 6 and 7 and to explore the additional enhancements
described in chapter 9.

About the code

This book is accompanied by extensive code examples. In addition to the extended
code example for the streetcar delay prediction problem in chapters 3–8, there are
additional standalone code examples for chapter 2 (to demonstrate the Pandas
library and the relationship between Pandas and SQL) and chapter 5 (to demonstrate
the Keras sequential and functional APIs).
Chapter 2 describes the options you have for running the code examples, and the
appendix has further details on one of the options, Google’s Colab. Whichever envi-
ronment you choose, you need to have Python (at least version 3.7) and key libraries
including the following:
■
Pandas
■
Scikit-learn
■
Keras/TensorFlow 2.x
As you run through the portions of the code, you may need to pip install additional
libraries.
The deployment portion of the main streetcar delay prediction example has some
additional requirements:
■
Flask library for the web deployment
■
Rasa chatbot framework and ngrok for the Facebook Messenger deployment
The source code is formatted in a fixed-width font like this to separate it from
ordinary text. Sometimes code is also in bold to highlight code that has changed from
previous steps in the chapter, such as when a new feature adds to an existing line of
code.
In many cases, the original source code has been reformatted; we’ve added line
breaks and reworked indentation to accommodate the available page space in the
book. In rare cases, even this was not enough, and listings include line-continuation
markers (➥). Additionally, comments in the source code have often been removed
from the listings when the code is described in the text. Code annotations accompany
many of the listings, highlighting important concepts.
 ABOUT THIS BOOK xxi

You can find all the code examples for this book in the GitHub repo at http://
mng.bz/v95x.

liveBook discussion forum

Purchase of Deep Learning with Structured Data includes free access to a private web
forum run by Manning Publications where you can make comments about the book,
ask technical questions, and receive help from the author and from other users. To
access the forum, go to https://livebook.manning.com/#!/book/deep-learning-with-
structured-data/discussion. You can also learn more about Manning’s forums and the
rules of conduct at https://livebook.manning.com/#!/discussion.
Manning’s commitment to our readers is to provide a venue where a meaningful
dialogue between individual readers and between readers and the author can take
place. It is not a commitment to any specific amount of participation on the part of
the author, whose contribution to the forum remains voluntary (and unpaid). We sug-
gest you try asking the author some challenging questions lest his interest stray! The
forum and the archives of previous discussions will be accessible from the publisher’s
website as long as the book is in print.
 about the author
MARK RYAN is a data science manager at Intact Insurance in Toronto, Canada. Mark
has a passion for sharing the benefits of machine learning, including delivering
machine learning bootcamps to give participants a hands-on introduction to the
world of machine learning. In addition to deep learning and its potential to unlock
additional value in structured, tabular data, his interests include chatbots and the
potential of autonomous vehicles. He has a bachelor of mathematics degree from the
University of Waterloo and a master’s degree in computer science from the University
of Toronto.

xxii
 about the cover illustration
The figure on the cover of Deep Learning with Structured Data is captioned “Homme de
Navarre,” or “A man from Navarre,” a diverse northern region of northern Spain. The
illustration is taken from a collection of dress costumes from various countries by
Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (1757–1810), titled Costumes de Différents Pays, pub-
lished in France in 1797. Each illustration is finely drawn and colored by hand. The
rich variety of Grasset de Saint-Sauveur’s collection reminds us vividly of how cultur-
ally apart the world’s towns and regions were just 200 years ago. Isolated from each
other, people spoke different dialects and languages. In the streets or in the country-
side, it was easy to identify where they lived and what their trade or station in life was
just by their dress.
The way we dress has changed since then and the diversity by region, so rich at the
time, has faded away. It is now hard to tell apart the inhabitants of different conti-
nents, let alone different towns, regions, or countries. Perhaps we have traded cultural
diversity for a more varied personal life—certainly for a more varied and fast-paced
technological life.
At a time when it is hard to tell one computer book from another, Manning cele-
brates the inventiveness and initiative of the computer business with book covers
based on the rich diversity of regional life of two centuries ago, brought back to life by
Grasset de Saint-Sauveur’s pictures.

xxiii
 Why deep learning
with structured data?

This chapter covers

 A high-level overview of deep learning
 Benefits and drawbacks of deep learning
 Introduction to the deep learning software stack
 Structured versus unstructured data
 Objections to deep learning with structured data
 Advantages of deep learning with structured data
 Introduction to the code accompanying this book

Since 2012, we have witnessed what can only be called a renaissance of artificial
intelligence. A discipline that had lost its way in the late 1980s is important again.
What happened?
In October 2012, a team of students working with Geoffrey Hinton (a leading
academic proponent of deep learning based at the University of Toronto)
announced a result in the ImageNet computer vision contest that achieved an
error rate in identifying objects that was close to half that of the nearest competitor.

1
2 CHAPTER 1 Why deep learning with structured data?

This result exploited deep learning and ushered in an explosion of interest in the
topic. Since then, we have seen deep learning applications with world-class results in
many domains, including image processing, audio to text, and machine translation.
In the past couple of years, the tools and infrastructure for deep learning have
reached a level of maturity and accessibility that make it possible for nonspecialists to
take advantage of deep learning’s benefits. This book shows how you can use deep
learning to get insights into and make predictions about structured data: data orga-
nized as tables with rows and columns, as in a relational database. You will see the
capability of deep learning by going step by step through a complete, end-to-end
example of deep learning, from ingesting the raw input structured data to making the
deep learning model available to end users. By applying deep learning to a problem
with a real-world structured dataset, you will see the challenges and opportunities of
deep learning with structured data.

1.1 Overview of deep learning

Before reviewing the high-level concepts of deep learning, let’s introduce a simple
example that we can use to explore these concepts: detection of credit card fraud.
Chapter 2 introduces the real-world dataset and an extensive code example that pre-
pares this dataset and uses it to train a deep learning model. For now, this basic fraud
detection example is sufficient for a review of some of the concepts of deep learning.
Why would you want to exploit deep learning for fraud detection? There are sev-
eral reasons:
 Fraudsters can find ways to work around the traditional rules-based approaches
to fraud detection (http://mng.bz/emQw).
 A deep learning approach that is part of an industrial-strength pipeline—in
which the model performance is frequently assessed and the model is automati-
cally retrained if its performance drops below a given threshold—can adapt to
changes in fraud patterns.
 A deep learning approach has the potential to provide near-real-time assess-
ment of new transactions.
In summary, deep learning is worth considering for fraud detection because it can be
the heart of a flexible, fast solution. Note that in addition to these advantages, there is
a downside to using deep learning as a solution to the problem of fraud detection:
compared with other approaches, deep learning is harder to explain. Other machine
learning approaches allow you to determine which input characteristics most influ-
ence the outcome, but this relationship can be difficult or impossible to establish with
deep learning.
Assume that a credit card company maintains customer transactions as records in a
table. Each record in this table contains information about the transaction, including
an ID that uniquely identifies the customer, as well as details about the transaction,
including the date and time of the transaction, the ID of the vendor, the location of
 Overview of deep learning 3

the transaction, and the currency and amount of the transaction. In addition to this
information, which is added to the table every time a transaction is reported, every
record has a field to indicate whether the transaction was reported as a fraud.
The credit card company plans to train a deep learning model on the historical
data in this table and use this trained model to predict whether new incoming transac-
tions are fraudulent. The goal is to identify potential fraud as quickly as possible (and
take corrective action) rather than waiting days for the customer or vendor to report
that a particular transaction is fraudulent.
Let’s examine the customer transaction table. Figure 1.1 contains a snippet of what
some records in this table would look like.

Training data (X) Label (Y)

Figure 1.1 Dataset for credit card fraud example

The columns customer ID, transaction date, transaction time, vendor ID, City,
Country, currency, and amount contain details about individual credit card
transactions for the previous quarter. The fraud column is special because it contains
the label: the value that we want the deep learning model to predict when it has been
trained on the training data. Assume that the default value in the fraud column is 0
(meaning “not a fraud”), and that when one of our customers or vendors reports a
fraudulent transaction, the value in the fraud column for that transaction in the table
is set to 1.
As new transactions arrive, we want to be able to predict whether they are fraudu-
lent so that we can quickly take corrective action. By training the deep learning model
on the historical dataset, we will be defining a function that can predict whether new
credit card transactions are fraudulent. In this example of supervised learning
(http://mng.bz/pzBE), the model is trained by means of a dataset that incorporates
examples with labels. The dataset that is used to train the model includes the value
that the trained model will predict (in this case, whether a transaction is fraudulent).
By contrast, in unsupervised learning the training dataset does not include labels.
Now that we have introduced the credit card fraud example, let’s use it to take a
brief tour of some of the concepts of deep learning. For a more in-depth description
of these concepts, see François Chollet’s Deep Learning with Python, 2nd ed.
(http://mng.bz/OvM2), which includes excellent descriptions of these concepts:
 Another Random Document on
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 "Oh! Dubourg, how irritating you are! you have no idea of love!"
"Love, my friend, is a doll that everyone dresses according to his own
fancy;—isn't that so, Monsieur Ménard?"
"I cannot answer from experience, monsieur le baron."
In due time they arrived at Grenoble, where they dismissed their driver.
Their arrangements there were not the same as at Lyon; but although the
hotel was less palatial, they had an excellent table; poultry was abundant,
and the wine very good. Monsieur Ménard and Dubourg made the best of it.
On the day following their arrival, Frédéric and his companions started
off to visit the Carthusian monastery. Dubourg, having ceased to play the
grand seigneur, was quite as willing to accompany his friend as to remain
with Ménard, and the latter decided to go along, although he was a poor
walker, and Frédéric, the better to enjoy the country, proposed to go on foot.
The monastery, which they reached after half a day's walk, first appears
to the visitor surrounded by mountains covered with firs, by fertile valleys
and rich pasture lands. Approaching by Fourvoyerie, you follow a road
hewn out of the solid rock, with a rushing mountain stream on the left, and
a perpendicular cliff sixty feet high on the right. One inevitably feels an
unfamiliar sensation, a blending of wonder and alarm, at sight of that wild
landscape.
They stopped to examine the peak called L'Aiguille, which towers above
the gate of the Grande Chartreuse. Frédéric was lost in admiration, Dubourg
looked calmly at the rock, and Ménard sighed; but the hospitable welcome
they received at the Chartreuse revived the poor tutor's spirits; while he
agreed that there were many superb views in that region, he felt that he
preferred his little fourth-floor room on Rue Bétisy to the most picturesque
cell in the monastery, where, moreover, fast-days were very numerous. It is
not given to everybody to appreciate the beauties of nature; and it was with
extreme delight that Ménard started to return to Grenoble, although Frédéric
proposed that they should sleep at the Chartreuse to avoid overtiring
themselves. Ménard declared that he was not tired, and that the walk of five
leagues had no terrors for him; so they set out, after dinner.
The sun was just setting and our travellers were still four leagues from
Grenoble, because Frédéric paused every instant to call his friends' attention
to a valley, a windmill, or a lovely view. Every time that Frédéric stopped,
Ménard sat down on the turf, and they had much difficulty in inducing him
to rise again. The worthy man was not a great walker, but he summoned all
his courage and took the liberty of clinging to the arm of monsieur le baron,
who was the most good-natured fellow in the world when he was not
putting on the airs of a palatine.
Frédéric's attention was attracted by strains of rustic music.
"Come," he said, "let us go down in this direction; I see some villagers
dancing below; let us enjoy the picture of their merrymaking."
"Come on," said Dubourg; "there are probably some pretty girls among
the dancers."
"Let us go," said Ménard; "we shall have a chance to rest and refresh
ourselves."
They descended a hill into a valley bordered by oaks and firs, where
there were assembled the people of a small village which could be seen
farther up the valley. It was the local saint's day, and the peasants were
celebrating it by dancing. The orchestra consisted of a bagpipe and
tambourine, but that was quite enough for their purpose. Happiness shone
on every face; the girls wore their best gowns, and the coquettish costume
of the village maidens of that province makes them most attractive, as a
general rule. The older people were seated a little apart, chatting together
and drinking, while their children danced.
Ménard seated himself at a table, and called for refreshments. Dubourg
prowled about the dancers, making sweet speeches to the prettiest peasants;
while Frédéric, after watching the picture for some time, walked away from
the dance, along the bank of a stream which wound in and out among the
willows on the edge of a dense forest.
He had walked so far that the notes of the bagpipe hardly reached his
ears, and was about to return to his companions, when, on turning his head,
he espied, within a few paces, a young girl seated on the bank, looking
toward the valley with a bewitchingly sweet expression, and smiling at the
dance, which she could see in the distance; but there was in her smile a
tinge of melancholy which seemed to be a natural part of it. She was
apparently fifteen or sixteen years of age. Her garments indicated poverty,
but her charms made one overlook them. Beautiful fair hair played in curls
about her innocent brow, her features were refined and delicate, her mouth
graceful and smiling, and her soft blue eyes wore a pathetic expression of
gentle melancholy which harmonized with the pallor of her complexion.
 Frédéric stopped and gazed at the young woman; he could not tire of
contemplating her. Why was she there, alone by the brook, while her
companions were making merry and dancing? Why that melancholy
expression? It was only a moment since Frédéric's eyes had fallen upon her,
and his interest was already awakened; he longed to know all about her; it
seemed to him that his heart already shared her sorrows.
At that moment, several couples passed along the path on their way to
the dance. Frédéric accosted a peasant woman, and said, pointing to the girl
sitting by the brook:
"Pray, who is that pretty child, and why doesn't she join in your sports?"
The villagers stopped and replied, with a compassionate glance at the
girl:
"Oh! monsieur, the poor dear don't dance! That's Sister Anne."
Frédéric, surprised, expected some further explanation; but they went on
toward the dance, repeating sadly:
"That's Sister Anne."
 IX

WHAT WAS SHE DOING THERE?—THE VILLAGE DANCE

The peasants had gone, but Frédéric remained on the path among the
willows, where the last rays of the sun cast but a feeble light. He was still
gazing at the girl, who did not see him because, being no longer able to see
the dance, she had let her head fall on her breast, and her eyes were fixed on
the water flowing at her feet.
What did those women mean by those words: "Poor dear, she don't
dance. That's Sister Anne"?
Frédéric was deeply impressed by the tone of commiseration in which
this was said. The villagers seemed to pity the lovely child, and to consider
it perfectly natural that she should take no part in her companions'
pleasures.
What grief, what possible cause, could keep that pretty girl away from
those scenes of merrymaking? Although her charming features wore an
expression of gentle melancholy, she did not seem to be agitated by any
recent sorrow; on the contrary, she seemed placid and calm; she smiled at
the brook which rippled at her feet, and her soul was evidently as pure as
the water in which her face was reflected.
The girl was, as it were, wrapped in mystery, and Frédéric longed to
solve that mystery. Anything that concerned Sister Anne was no longer a
matter of indifference to him. He walked toward her very softly; he was
close beside her, and she did not raise her eyes.
"How is this?" said Frédéric, in a trembling voice; "you do not imitate
your companions? They are dancing within a few yards, and you stay by
yourself in this lonely spot?"
At the sound of Frédéric's voice, the girl turned her head and started
back in alarm; but, in a moment, reassured by his gentle tone, she became
calm again, and simply rose and moved away from the brook.
"Have you some trouble, some profound sorrow? Can it be that you,
young as you are, are already acquainted with unhappiness? If it were in my
power to lighten your burden, I should consider myself very fortunate."
 The girl glanced at him with an expression in which melancholy
resignation was blended with gratitude. She fastened her lovely eyes on his
for a moment, then, with a graceful courtesy, started to walk away. He took
her hand and gently detained her. She seemed surprised, yes, frightened,
and withdrew her hand from the young man's, who was already pressing it.
"You are going away," said Frédéric, "without answering me, without
deigning to say a word to me?"
The girl's eyes became even more expressive, as if animated by
indescribable pain; in a moment, they were filled with tears, which trickled
down her almost colorless cheeks.
"Great heaven! you weep! can it be that I am the cause?" cried Frédéric,
seizing the poor child's hand again. She made a sign, as if to say that it was
not his fault. A faint smile broke through her tears; but she withdrew her
hand again, and, darting into the thickest part of the wood, as light of foot
as a fawn, she speedily disappeared.
He took a few steps in the same direction; but it was quite dark, and he
could not see where she went. So he returned to the stream and stopped at
the place where she had been sitting.
Frédéric could not as yet fully realize his feelings, but he was conscious
of a sentiment for that girl more tender, more intense, and at the same time
much more delicious to his heart, than any of his previous passions. When
he lost sight of her, his heart beat violently; it seemed to him already that
she was something to him. What grace, what charms! But why that
melancholy and that silence? They called her Sister Anne: what was the
significance of that title of Sister? Did she belong to some religious order?
But, no; her costume did not indicate anything of that kind, and she was
free to go where she chose. But there was an air of mystery about her.
"Lovely girl!" thought Frédéric, looking toward the forest in which she
had vanished; "I propose to find out all about you; I propose to see you
again and to allay your grief. I feel that I love you already; yes, I love you;
not as I loved all those coquettes who deceived me, but as you deserve to be
loved; for I read sincerity and innocence in your eyes. Ah! how happy I
should be, if you should come to love me some day!"
But it had grown quite dark; it was time for him to join his companions.
Frédéric regretfully left the willow-bordered path where he had seen Sister
Anne; but as he returned to the valley, he said to himself:
 "I will see her again; I absolutely must! I won't mention her to Dubourg;
he would laugh at me; he believes that all women are alike; he has no
conception of love.—Poor child! I will soon find out why you don't take
part in your comrades' sports."
The dancing had become very spirited; the villagers abandoned
themselves with zest to the pastime; joy and happiness were depicted on
every face. The songs of the drinkers blended with the music of the bagpipe
and tambourine. The young men squeezed their sweethearts' hands as they
danced, the maidens smiled sweetly at their lovers, the mothers at their little
ones, and the old men at their bottles. Each smiled at what he loved best, as
if in gratitude for the pleasure it afforded him.
Ménard, who had seated himself between two sturdy drinkers, listened
calmly to the gossip of the neighborhood, eating a salad the while, and
clinking glasses with his neighbors; for pride is unknown in the village, and
Ménard never exhibited that sentiment inopportunely—that is to say, he
knew enough to make it subordinate to his appetite.
Dubourg, forgetting his titles of nobility, had joined in the dance. He was
capering about with a pretty brunette, with bright eyes, a retroussé nose, and
an exceedingly shapely leg. The peasant girl was not at all intimidated by
her elegant partner; on the contrary, she kept saying to him:
"Come, why don't you dance? you don't move at all!"
Dubourg performed his dainty little Parisian steps, which are so highly
esteemed in the salons of the capital; but to the villagers that was nothing
more than walking, and the girl said again and again:
"Can't you dance better'n that? What kind of dancing do you call that?
Come, you must kick up your heels, or I'll take another partner!"
Thereupon Dubourg, who did not want her to take another partner, made
a telegraph of his arms and legs, and kept them in motion incessantly.
Ménard, watching his performance from his table, said to his neighbors:
"There's monsieur le baron dancing a polonaise with your young
women! Look, my boys, that's the way they dance at Cracow, and on the
Krapach Mountains! How dignified it is! how graceful! What pretty steps
he takes per fas et nefas!"
Ménard's neighbors opened their eyes to their fullest extent,
understanding nothing of what he said. But Dubourg's partner was content,
and he, seeing that she was inclined to look favorably on him, ventured to
steal a kiss; but she instantly retorted by boxing his ears, for the village
damsels of the suburbs of Grenoble do not resemble the Gotons of the
suburbs of Paris.
Frédéric stood near the dancers, but paid no heed to the animated picture
before his eyes. He fancied himself still in the lonely path, and saw, in his
imagination, the girl sitting beside the stream.
Dubourg joined him, having left his partner because he saw that he
would have nothing but his capers and prancing for his pains, and because
the cuffing the peasant had given him had cooled his ardor for the dance.
"Where on earth have you been?" he asked; "you left us at just the wrong
time."
"I have been taking a walk."
"What a tireless walker you are! But it seems to me that it's time for us to
walk to Grenoble, which is still four leagues away."
They joined Ménard, who complimented Dubourg on his dancing.
Frédéric inquired the shortest way to Grenoble, and a young villager offered
to guide them part of the way; but Ménard did not seem capable of walking
four leagues, and even Dubourg was dismayed by the distance. The villager
suggested his farm horse, on condition that they should ride him at a
footpace. The suggestion was gratefully accepted by Dubourg and Ménard;
the latter rode behind, clinging fast to the baron. Frédéric went on foot with
their guide.
The weather was superb, and the fields were bathed in moonlight. The
forests of fir rose majestically on their left hand, and the smith's hammer
alone broke the silence of the night. As they passed a forge, a bright glare
would efface for a moment the moon's bluish light, and cast a reddish gleam
over the landscape. The voices of the workmen blending with the clang of
the hammer inspired Dubourg to say to Ménard:
"Do you hear the Cyclops forging Jupiter's thunderbolts?"
And Ménard replied:
"Not for all the gold of Peru would I venture among those people alone,
at night."
And he dug his heels into their charger, which did not quicken its pace.
Dubourg and the tutor were a little behind the others, because the road was
very stony and the horse could make but slow progress. The guide was a
boy of twelve, ingenuous and frank like most mountaineers.
"What is this village we are leaving?" Frédéric asked him.
"Vizille, monsieur; it's the prettiest village round Grenoble."
"Do you live here?"
"Yes, monsieur; I was born here."
"Do you know——"
Before completing his question, Frédéric turned to see if his companions
could hear him; but they were more than fifty yards behind. Dubourg was
talking about Bretagne, and describing to Ménard how the people lived
there. Frédéric saw that he could talk with their guide without any fear of
being overheard.
"Do you know a young girl in the village, who is called Sister Anne?"
"Sister Anne? oh! yes, monsieur; of course I know her. She don't live just
in the village, but her cottage ain't far away. Poor Sister Anne! who is there
that don't know her, hereabouts?"
"Why, you, too, seem to pity her? Is she so very unfortunate, pray?"
"Dam'! of course I pity her; her story is very sad."
"Do you know it?"
"Yes, monsieur; my mother's told it to me more than once; everybody in
our village knows it."
"Tell me the story; tell me all you know about Sister Anne; speak, my
friend, and be sure not to forget anything."
As he spoke, Frédéric put a silver coin in the boy's hand; he was much
surprised to be paid for such a simple thing, and artlessly began his story, of
which Frédéric, walking close beside him, did not lose a word.
 X

SISTER ANNE'S STORY

"Sister Anne's mother was a lady named Clotilde, who was sweet and
pretty, so they say. She belonged to a rich family, and wasn't brought up like
a peasant girl; she knew ever so much, but she and her husband came and
lived in our village. Folks said it was a love match, and that Clotilde chose
to have her lover and a cottage instead of the fine house she could have had
with another husband.
"Clotilde and her husband lived happily for some time in our village;
they had a daughter first, little Anne, who was as pretty as her mother—but
you've seen her, haven't you, monsieur?
"Four years after, they had another child, a boy; and they were very glad,
and the little girl never left her little brother. But, before long, the poor
things had lots of trouble: a big storm beat down their crops, so they lost
them; and poor Clotilde was taken sick. Then her husband couldn't see any
other way to support his wife and children but to enlist. So he sold himself
as a substitute, gave all the money to Clotilde, and went away.
"'Take good care of our poor children,' he says to her.
"Clotilde felt so bad to have her husband go away that she couldn't do
anything for a long time, and little Anne took the whole care of her brother,
because she loved him with all her heart. Her mother used to say to her:
"'Take good care of your brother; perhaps he won't have anybody but
you to support him before long.'
"A whole year passed. Clotilde's husband used to write often at first, but
all of a sudden his letters stopped. There had been a battle—for in those
days they were fighting all the time.
"Poor Clotilde's husband was killed. The folks in the neighborhood
heard of it, but no one was brave enough to tell her; and Clotilde kept
expecting to hear from him long after he was dead.
"Every day, the poor woman used to go to the top of a hill, where you
can see the road a long way in the direction of Grenoble; that was the way
she expected to see her husband come. She often passed whole days sitting
at the foot of a tree, looking at the road where she saw her dear husband the
last time.
"When anybody saw Clotilde there, they'd try to comfort her by talking
about her children, but she'd say in a sad voice:
"'Anne is with her brother; she never leaves him; she'll be a second
mother to him.'
"You see, the little girl was only seven years old, but she surprised the
whole village by her intelligence and her loving care of her brother. The
poor little fellow didn't see anybody but her most of the day, but he always
had all he wanted. His Sister Anne dressed him, put him to sleep, played
with him, and tried to guess what he was going to want; so her name, Sister
Anne, was the first word he ever spoke, and everybody in the village called
her that, and spoke of her as a model of sisterly affection; she has gone by
that name ever since.
"One day, Clotilde went out as usual, to go where she always used to go,
and left Sister Anne with her brother. Their mother didn't come back at the
usual time. The little boy kept on playing, but his sister kept looking out
into the fields and saying:
"'Why don't mamma come?'
"When the night came, Clotilde hadn't come home. If Anne had been
alone, she would have gone to the village and all around, to ask if anyone
had seen her mother. But she couldn't leave her brother; he was a treasure
that had been given to her to take care of, and she couldn't think of leaving
him for an instant. At last, the poor girl decided to put her brother to bed,
for he was only three years old and needed his sleep; then she sat down by
his bed to wait for their mother. Every minute she suffered more and more;
she couldn't help crying, and she kept saying to herself:
"'Why don't mamma come? O mon Dieu! she can't have deserted us!'
"To make it all the harder for her, a terrible storm came up. The thunder
made a frightful uproar, and Sister Anne was awfully afraid of it; so she put
her head into her brother's cradle and called to her mother to come and save
them.
"All of a sudden, there was a frightful crash that startled the whole
village. Sister Anne was dazed by it, and didn't dare to open her eyes for
some time. But when she did open them, and looked around, the cottage
was filled with thick smoke. The poor girl looked to see where it could
come from. The smoke got thicker every minute. Anne ran toward the
window, but couldn't get to it on account of the flames. The lightning had
struck the roof and set it on fire, and the two poor children were surrounded
by flames on all sides.
"Then the girl thought of nothing but her brother; she took him out of the
cradle and ran all around the room, shrieking at the top of her voice. But the
danger was increasing all the time, and she lost her strength; the smoke
suffocated her; she tried to keep on calling, but she couldn't.
"Everybody in the village ran to the cottage, of course, monsieur. They
couldn't save the house, but they must save the children, anyway. They
succeeded, by taking great risks, in getting into Sister Anne's room. They
found her with her brother under their mother's bed; she was holding him
tight against her breast, trying to save him from death; but it was no use; the
poor little fellow was dead! Sister Anne had only fainted, and they
succeeded in bringing her back to life.—But just imagine how surprised and
grieved everybody was, monsieur, when they found that the terrible shock
had made her dumb!—She opened her mouth, but could only make a sort of
low, moaning noise. Since then, the poor girl has never spoken a word!"
"Great God!" cried Frédéric; "poor child! so that is the cause of the
melancholy expression of her lovely face!"
"Yes, monsieur," resumed the boy; "Sister Anne is dumb; all that has
been done since then to make her able to speak hasn't done any good. The
city doctors said that the horrible fright, and her agony at seeing her brother
die and not being able to save him, had taken away the power of speech,
and that the same kind of shock might give it back to her, perhaps, but
nothing else could. But the poor little girl still had a heart to feel her
sorrow; she succeeded in making people understand all she had suffered.
For ever so many years, she mourned for her brother and her mother; for
poor Clotilde gave way to her grief the same night that was so fatal to her
children, and they found her dead on top of the mountain, at the foot of the
tree.
"The burning of the little cottage deprived Anne of her only place of
shelter. But everybody in the village subscribed to help her; and a good
woman named Marguerite, who lives in a little cabin in the woods, near the
valley, took her in and adopted her. Marguerite was poor, too; but with the
money collected from the richest people in the village, Anne bought a cow
and a number of goats.
"For several years, she didn't seem able to do any kind of work. She
passed her days sitting on the bank of a brook, or in the woods; she didn't
listen to what anyone said to her, and couldn't seem to do anything but
grieve for her father and mother and brother; but she got partly over her
grief in time, and now she's more calm and resigned; she seems to
appreciate what people do for her; she works like any country girl, and
shows the greatest respect for Marguerite, who is very old and never leaves
her cabin. Sister Anne is sweet and good and tender-hearted now, as she
always used to be. She even smiles sometimes, but her smile is always sad.
If she sees a little boy of her brother's age, it makes her excited and
unhappy, and her eyes fill with tears. If you've seen her, monsieur, you
know how pretty she is. She's sixteen now; even if she can't talk, she can
make herself understood; her gestures mean so much, and her eyes speak so
plain! We all understand her as easy as can be. But, for all that, it's a great
pity she can't talk; for all the women say it would do her a lot of good."
"Poor child!" said Frédéric; "yes, it is a great pity, indeed! How soft and
sweet her voice would be! how I would have liked to hear it! But her
misfortune makes her even more interesting in my eyes.—And you say that
she lives in the woods?"
"Yes, monsieur; but it's easy enough to find old Marguerite's cabin. If
you take the path to the left from the one where the willows are, you'll come
to a clearing; then go down a low hill, and the cabin is in front of you."
"Very good, my boy; thank you."
"But here you are at Grenoble; you don't need me any more, do you,
monsieur?"
"No, my boy; here, take this with the other, for your trouble."
"Thank you very much, monsieur; if you ever need anyone in the village
to help you, my name's Julien, and I'd be glad to work for you."
"Very well; I will remember."
The two horsemen dismounted; the young guide took their place, doffed
his cap to the travellers, and rode away at a footpace. Frédéric, musing upon
all that he had heard, walked in silence beside his two companions, who, as
they entered Grenoble, were discussing the proper way to serve a canard
aux olives—a discussion in which they had been engaged for some time,
Dubourg insisting upon the method in vogue in Bretagne, and Ménard
immovable in the principles he had learned from the Cuisinier Royal.
On reaching the inn, they retired to take the rest of which they stood in
need after so tiresome a day. But Frédéric could not sleep; the dumb girl's
face was constantly in his thoughts; he thought of her misfortune, of the
pathetic story he had heard, and he said to himself:
"How dearly she loved her brother! What a loving heart! How she will
love, when love makes itself known to her! What pleasure to awaken love
in her heart! to read in her lovely eyes, which fill the place so well of the
organ she has lost!"
This thought kept Frédéric busy all night. At daybreak, he rose, and,
leaving his companions to enjoy the repose which he could not obtain, left
the inn, ordered a horse, and galloped away toward Vizille.
 XI

A DAY IN THE WOODS

Love is the god who most agreeably employs our leisure; he scoffs at
distances and disarranges time. A lover is never bored, even when he is not
favored. Memories, schemes, hopes, afford constant occupation to a loving
heart. Love is the god of all countries and of all classes; he finds his way
into the humble cottage as well as into the palace. Love is as sweet on the
heather as on the softest cushions; indeed, some persons go so far as to
maintain that love is truer in the country than in the city; it ought, at all
events, to be more natural there. The mountaineer, the woodchopper, the
ploughman, may not devote his time to the fine arts, to financial schemes,
to political intrigues; but everybody is at liberty to love, luckily for the
human race. Some author, I know not who, has said with much truth: "The
happiest time of a man's life is that which he spends paying court to his
mistress."
What a pity it is that this time is so short! It is probably to renew their
happiness that men change mistresses so often. Women do not treat love so
lightly. It is their life's history, while with us it is only a romance.
Frédéric soon arrived at the valley where there was dancing the night
before, and which was now as peaceful and quiet as the whole
neighborhood. A few laboring men passed, on their way to work; here and
there, a peasant could be seen in the fields. In the country, the evening's
enjoyment does not impair the morrow's toil; the good people find their
diversion in talking over the pleasures of the holiday, which will not return
for a year; but the time will pass quickly to them: they know so well how to
employ it.
Frédéric rode toward the little, willow-lined path; there he dismounted,
tied his horse to a tree, and plunged into the woods. He looked for the maid
on the bank of the stream, but she was not at the place where he had seen
her the night before. So he went farther into the woods, recalled what his
guide had told him, and took the path to the left. Everything was peaceful
and calm; the dark foliage of the firs almost excluded the daylight. At last
he came to a clearing, descended a hill, and saw a wretched cabin before
him. The wood of which it was built had rotted in several places, and the
thatched roof threatened to fall in. There was a small garden at the right,
surrounded by a picket fence, a part of which had fallen.
Frédéric's heart ached at the aspect of the place, which was eloquent of
utter poverty and of a lack of the prime necessities of life.
"And this is where she lives," he said to himself; "where she has lived, in
poverty and solitude, ever since she was seven years old! Poor child! When
your sublime self-sacrifice, when the catastrophe which resulted from it,
deserved the homage of all mankind, you had only this wretched hut in
which to weep for your brother and parents, and were fortunate not to be
left without a shelter and without bread!"
He leaned against a tree and gazed at the cabin; his heart was so full that
he could not go forward; he could only sigh and say to himself:
"She is there!"
Several minutes passed. Suddenly, the door of the cabin was thrown
open, and a girl appeared in the doorway and looked out into the woods. It
was she! The depressing aspect of that wild spot, the gloomy woods, the
dilapidated cabin, all vanished! The girl's presence instantly made her
surroundings beautiful.—The woman we love wields a tremendous power;
she communicates her fascination to everything about her: by her side, the
darkest cavern causes no fear, the wildest spot on earth seems a paradise.
Sister Anne went back into the cabin, and soon came out again with four
goats, her whole flock. There was a cow in the little garden; she patted her
as she passed, as if promising to return soon. Then, driving her goats toward
a hillside where there was an abundance of grass, the dumb girl walked
slowly behind them, with her head bent forward, raising it only to see that
her goats did not go astray.
Frédéric had retained his position against the tree, which concealed him
almost entirely, and watched every movement of Sister Anne. When she
went toward the hill, he followed her noiselessly; he longed to be by her
side, to speak to her; but he was afraid of startling her if he appeared too
abruptly. She seemed so shy and timid: suppose she should run away from
him again!
But she seated herself on a green mound, and took from her little basket
a piece of bread and some figs; she was about to breakfast. Frédéric drew
nearer and nearer, until he stood close beside her; and when she turned her
head to look after one of her goats, she saw before her again the young man
of the previous evening.
The girl made a movement which seemed to be due rather to surprise
than alarm; indeed, there was nothing about Frédéric to inspire fear; as he
stood before her, himself anxious and trembling, his glance was gentle and
timid; his whole aspect and manner bore witness to the tender interest she
aroused in him.
As she seemed disposed to rise and go away, Frédéric said to her:
"Do not fly from me, I entreat you, sweet girl; I should be very unhappy
if I caused you the slightest fear."
The child smiled, and gave him to understand, by shaking her head
gently, that she had no such feeling.
"I saw you last night by the brook," said Frédéric, walking toward her.
Sister Anne looked at him, then lowered her eyes, smiling again, as if to say
that she remembered him.
"What! you remember me? And you, sweet girl, have not been out of my
thoughts for one moment. How could I fail to be impressed by the sight of
such lovely features and such charms of person and of manner?"
The girl listened in surprise; all that he said was entirely strange to her
ears. He sat down on the turf, a few feet away from her. This action seemed
to surprise her still more; she looked at him again, with something like
alarm, but the sentiment expressed in his eyes soon set her heart at rest. She
looked at the ground, but it was easy to read on her ingenuous features that
she was waiting curiously for him to speak again.
"When I saw you yesterday, I felt the deepest interest in you. But how
that interest has grown since I learned—— Poor child! Ah! I know of your
sad plight! I know all the misfortunes that have been heaped upon you."
The dumb girl's features became more expressive than ever; a
heartrending memory seemed to agitate her. She groaned, raised her eyes to
heaven, then turned them on the ground once more as a flood of tears
poured from them.
Frédéric went to her side; he put one arm lightly about her, and took her
hand, which he placed upon his heart.
"I have revived your grief," he said; "pray forgive me. Would to heaven
that I could, on the contrary, help you to forget it by making you happy!
Poor child! let me wipe away your tears. From this moment, you are no
longer alone on earth; you have a friend, there is a heart that beats in answer
to yours, a heart that will beat for you alone, so long as it lives. Anne, dear
friend, give me leave to love you, to share your grief, your suffering, to
think constantly of you, to see you every day—oh! do not deny me this
favor, or I shall be much unhappier than you are!"
Frédéric spoke with great animation; love excited him and made his
voice sweeter than ever, his glance more seductive. The dumb girl listened
to him at first with surprise; an unfamiliar sentiment disturbed her; she tried
to withdraw her hand, but she had not the strength. Frédéric had ceased to
speak, and she continued to listen.
But soon the remembrance of her condition, of her misfortune, destroyed
the spell that was upon her. She looked at Frédéric with a melancholy
expression, and, with a much bitterer glance at herself, withdrew her hand
and pushed him away, shaking her head as if to say:
"No, you cannot love me; I am too unfortunate."
Frédéric understood her; he put her hand to his heart again, and said,
pointing to the cabin:
"With you, I should be happy living here in these woods."
At that moment, they heard the sound of a little bell. It was a signal
which notified Anne that old Marguerite had risen. She hastily called her
goats together and prepared to return to the cabin.
"Will you come back?" asked Frédéric; "oh! do let me see you again to-
day!"
She pointed to the sun, whose beams were just beginning to shine
through the foliage, then rested her head on the back of her hand.
"When the sun goes to rest, you will go to the brook?"
Sister Anne made an affirmative gesture, then hastened back to the
cabin, driving her goats before her. But she turned her head before she went
in, and looked back to the place where she had left Frédéric, smiled at him,
and disappeared. That glance and smile enraptured the young lover; he had
already ceased to be a stranger to Sister Anne; that thought filled his heart
with joy. It needs so little to make one happy, in love!
Frédéric went back to the place where he had left his horse; but, on the
way, he asked himself whether he should go to Grenoble and return at night.
It seemed to him more natural to remain in the village, to take a light lunch
there, and then to wander about in the neighborhood of the cabin, which,
even now, he found it so hard to leave. He cared little what his fellow
travellers might think or say. They must end by accustoming themselves to
his absences, for Frédéric had a feeling that he would come often to Vizille,
or, rather, that he would rarely go to Grenoble. She whom he loved dwelt in
those woods; Sister Anne was all in all to him; he no longer thought of the
future, his station in life, or his father's plans; he saw only her, he had no
wish to live except for her. To be sure, his love dated only from the night
before, and he was only twenty-one.
In the village, whither he went to rest and breakfast, he talked about
Sister Anne; and everyone seemed to take pleasure in praising her virtue,
her sweet nature, her tender heart; but they generally added:
"The poor girl is greatly to be pitied; she stands a good chance of
spending her life in that miserable hut; for what man would ever marry an
unfortunate mute?"
Frédéric smiled and held his peace; but he was thinking that he had seen
in Paris many women resplendent with beauty, charm, and talents, and that
he preferred the dumb girl of the forest to them all.
He found in the village such refreshment as he required; he saw that his
horse was bountifully fed; then, mounting him again, he rode back to the
woods, where he fastened him to a tree near the stream, then bent his steps
toward the lonely cabin.
The sun had performed but half his journey; but Frédéric hoped that, if
he prowled about the little house, he might see Sister Anne, which would
make it easier for him to wait patiently until evening.
As he approached the garden fence, which was only four feet high, he
had no difficulty in taking in at a glance the whole extent of the garden. It
was small, but they had made the most that could be made of it. Several
fruit trees, a few grapevines, vegetables, and flowers, were growing
together in that contracted space, where nature was at liberty to follow all
her caprices.
As he looked about, Frédéric saw an old woman seated under a fig-tree.
She was evidently very old, but her venerable face was the mirror of a calm
and peaceful soul. He gazed at her for some time with profound respect; it
was she who had adopted Anne, who had filled her mother's place.
 The good old woman's face lighted up as the dumb girl approached her,
carrying a wooden bowl filled with milk, which she placed on Marguerite's
knees. The old woman patted her cheek, saying:
"That is nice, my girl, my dear child. Sit down here by my side. You
know how I like to look at you while I am eating."
The girl at once sat down in front of Marguerite; she seemed to be on the
alert to anticipate her lightest wish, and more than once she raised her
withered hand and kissed it respectfully.
Frédéric did not stir; he could have passed hours watching that picture.
The old woman, after she had finished her meal of milk and fruit, rose,
and with Sister Anne's assistance walked two or three times about the
garden. Frédéric concealed himself when they passed, but he noticed that
the girl glanced into the woods, as if looking for someone. Could that
glance be for him! Ah! if so, how fortunate he would be! his heart dared to
conceive the hope. He was tempted to enter the garden, to throw himself at
the dumb girl's feet; but Marguerite's presence held him back.
At last they returned to the cabin, and Frédéric left the spot from which
he could look into the garden. He wandered about the woods for some time.
Everything brought the orphan's face before him; every tree, every bush
spoke of her. Had she not lived in those woods nine long years? Her feet
had trodden every foot of turf, and doubtless her eyes had rested on
everything that surrounded her.
He walked slowly back to the brook, and sat down on the spot where he
had first seen Sister Anne. It might be a long while before she came.
Frédéric took his notebook and pencil from his pocket, and wrote—what?
Poetry for Sister Anne; for is not every lover a poet? and are not poets more
eloquent when they are lovers? We have the lines Tibullus wrote for Delia;
Ovid immortalized Julia; Orpheus enchanted the Shades while seeking
Eurydice; it was love that tuned Anacreon's lyre, love that inspired Sappho;
Lesbia's charms aroused Catullus's poetic ardor, and Cynthia's imparted
delicacy and passion to the flowing verses of Propertius. Does not Petrarch
owe a large part of his renown to Laura? without her, he might have been a
poet; but would he have sung of love? To you, Eucharis and Eléonore, we
owe the moving elegies of Bertin and Parny's charming verses.
Time passes very swiftly when we are writing poetry for her we love.
Frédéric was still leaning over his notebook and writing busily, when he
heard a faint sound; he turned his head and saw Sister Anne behind him,
watching him with deep interest. She blushed when he detected her, but
Frédéric set her mind at rest, and, bidding her sit down beside him, read
what he had written.
Sister Anne had no idea what poetry was; but she understood Frédéric's
meaning in what he read. The heart is the key to an unsophisticated
woman's mind; the opposite is true of women of worldly training.
The girl was already less shy and embarrassed in Frédéric's presence; at
sixteen, one is quick to make acquaintances, especially when one has no
knowledge of the customs of society or of its laws. Frédéric was so gentle
and kind and sympathetic! he pitied her, he talked of her sad story, and the
poor orphan was surprised to find that there was somebody besides old
Marguerite who was interested in her destiny. The village people always
manifested much sympathy and pity for her; but there is in that sentiment
something distressing to its object. But that was not what she read in
Frédéric's eyes. He talked to her with deep interest and looked at her with
affection, and she was already beginning to feel less unhappy.
But the approach of night found them still seated by the stream. They
had been there two hours, to their great surprise. Anne rose and pointed to
Frédéric's horse; then turned her eyes anxiously toward the village, the
woods, and the mountains, and lastly upon Frédéric himself.
"I am going to Grenoble," he said; "I am staying there now with two
friends, who may be alarmed by my long absence. But I will come again to-
morrow, I will come every day. Do you think that I could pass a single day
without seeing you?"
The girl smiled, and seemed more content; she went with him to where
his horse was waiting; he pressed her soft hand to his lips, and finally made
up his mind to return to the city. Sister Anne went to the edge of the woods,
in order to follow him with her eyes as far as the twilight permitted. Not
until she could no longer hear his horse's step, did she return slowly to the
cabin, pensive and dreamy, surprised by the unfamiliar sensations of which
she was conscious, but which she could not understand.
 XII

HOW A MAN LOVES AT TWENTY

"Where in the devil have you been?" Dubourg inquired of Frédéric, who
arrived at the inn just as his two companions were sitting down to supper.
"I have been—riding about the neighborhood."
"What a mania you have for travelling about the country! Are you going
to lead the same kind of life here as at Lyon?"
"Possibly."
"That will be amusing for us! At Lyon, we could at least vary our
amusements a little, see people——"
"Yes, the Marquise de Versac, and others, eh?"
"But here! why, we know the city by heart already. If one could make an
acquaintance or two, obtain an introduction to a few houses—but when a
man has no money, he doesn't dare to show his face anywhere, for it gives
one an awkward manner that betrays one at once. If it's absolutely
necessary, in every place we stop, for you to know the history of every tree,
every stone, and every view, and to pause in rapt contemplation beside
every brook, why, we shan't get to Italy for ten years! and your life won't be
long enough for you to see half of Europe."
"I must say," observed Ménard, "that monsieur le baron's remarks seem
to me most judicious. We move about as rapidly as a tortoise, si parva licet
componere magnis."
"I could forgive you for making a minute examination of Naples or
Florence; there are monuments there which one cannot contemplate too
long. Gaze in admiration at the Coliseum or the Basilica of Saint Peter at
Rome; walk on Mount Pausilippus or Vesuvius, and I shall not be surprised;
but what do you find so extraordinary in this province? It is picturesque and
romantic, I agree; but we shall find some much more remarkable views on
our journey. Wait, before going into ecstasies, until you are on the glaciers
of Mont Blanc, or on some peak of the Apennines; and don't stand a whole
day in admiration before an old mulberry-tree overhanging a tiny stream;
for there are trees, shrubbery, turf, and fountains everywhere—except in the
African desert; and we are not going so far as that."
"My friend," said Frédéric, with a smile, "I have found here what one
would seek in vain elsewhere; and that, to my mind, is of more value than
all the wonders of the world."
With that, Frédéric went to his room and to bed, paying no heed to
Dubourg, who called after him:
"For heaven's sake, tell us what you've found?—What in the devil can he
have found, Monsieur Ménard?"
"I am trying to think, monsieur le baron."
"Gad! I wonder if it's the wallet that was stolen from me at Lyon."
"Or your berlin, monsieur le baron."
"My berlin! of course, that's all spent before now—that is to say, that
rascal of a postilion has probably sold it to get money for drink."
"True, that is probable. What a pity! such a venerable carriage!"
"But what can he have found that's so delightful?"
"Perhaps it's a method of keeping eggs fresh on a journey."
"Bah! as if Frédéric ever gave a thought to such things!"
"But it would be a most valuable discovery, monsieur le baron.
Somebody gave me a receipt for it once, and also one for making milk
punch, but I was unlucky enough to lose them while moving."
"It is plain that we shall not find out what he has found, unless he
chooses to tell us."
"I will go and think about it while I sleep, monsieur le baron."
"And I will go to sleep thinking about it, Monsieur Ménard."
Early the next morning, Frédéric again set out for the village. He rode
down into the valley, left his horse in a field where the grass was as high as
his knees, and walked rapidly along the path toward the woods; in a
moment he was on the hillside with Sister Anne, who had already driven
her little flock to pasture.
A deep flush overspread the girl's cheeks at sight of Frédéric; she smiled,
and offered him her hand with a friendly air. She had begun to be impatient
at his non-arrival; "Will he not come again?" she had said to herself, and
had kept her eyes fastened on the path from the valley. She had known him
only two days; but in a heart so affectionate and pure as hers, love is certain
to make rapid progress. Was it, then, love that she already felt for the young
stranger? Poor child! I am afraid so; and was it not natural? was she not at
an age when love blends with all our other sentiments? and Frédéric was
well adapted to inspire it.
"I am late," he said, "for my horse did not share my impatience; dear
friend, I am so happy with you! I would like never to leave you."
Anne gazed earnestly at him for a long while; she sighed, pointed to the
road leading to the city, then glanced at her cabin, as if to say:
"We shall always be separated."
"Leave that cabin, agree to come with me," cried Frédéric, eagerly; "and
we will never part."
The girl rose with a gesture of dismay, and, pointing again to the cabin,
imitated old Marguerite's tottering steps; then shook her head emphatically,
while her eyes shone with a divine expression which said to Frédéric:
"No, I will never leave her."
"Oh! forgive me; I am wrong, I can see it now; your heart cannot be
ungrateful; forgive me! love led me astray."
The dumb girl bore him no ill-will; she returned to her seat by his side,
and a charming smile lighted up her features. Her beautiful hair, fluttering
in the wind, caressed Frédéric's face, and she laughed as she drew it away.
But he passed an arm about her waist, and held that lovely head against his
heart. His eyes exchanged tender glances with Sister Anne's; his lips
touched her cheeks, and the pretty dumb girl's sweet breath mingled with
the air he breathed; are not such moments the sweetest in love, the happiest
in life?
They passed thus a great part of the day. Frédéric remained in the woods,
where Sister Anne brought him fruit and milk, so that he need not go to the
village. Already the girl dreaded to have him leave her. She ran again and
again to the cabin to see if Marguerite needed her; but the good old woman
slept much of the day, and Sister Anne soon ran back to her new friend.
Toward evening, she remained longer with her adopted mother.
Meanwhile, Frédéric went down to the stream and waited for her there, his
notebook making the time pass quickly. When the girl surprised him
writing, she heaved a profound sigh, and, looking sadly down at herself,
seemed to say:
"I don't know anything; I never shall know anything."
"I will be your teacher," said Frédéric, in reply to her unspoken thoughts;
"I will teach you to speak on paper."
At nightfall, the young man left his friend, who accompanied him sadly
to his horse, and whose eyes said:
"Until to-morrow!"
A week passed away. Every morning at daybreak Frédéric left Grenoble,
and rode to Vizille on the first horse he found in the inn stable. He passed
the whole day with Sister Anne, and left her at nightfall.
When he was away from the dumb girl, Frédéric barely existed, and
Sister Anne was no longer happy except when she was with him. Love had
taken possession of her heart, without any resistance from her; it had made
its appearance embellished by so many charms! why should she repel that
sentiment which made her happy? Frédéric possessed every element of
seduction; he kept telling her that he loved her and would love her all his
life; she did not for one moment doubt his oaths; she did not know what
inconstancy was. Why should he lie to her? She abandoned herself to the
joy of loving. Her mouth could utter no loving words, but her eyes told him
all that was taking place in her heart, and a single one of her glances was
equal to the most loving protestations.
Frédéric tried to teach her to write, but love constantly interfered with
the lessons he gave her. Seated by her side, pressing her to his heart, with
full liberty to gaze at leisure on her lovely features, her intoxicating eyes—
he stopped, and forgot what he was about to show her. She looked at him
and smiled, and the lesson was forgotten. Frédéric strained her to his heart,
his passions were aroused—but one is timid with innocence, especially
when one loves sincerely.
But the most timid passion grows bold in time; the habit of seeing each
other, of being together, of displaying their mutual affection, drew them
closer together every day. They were always alone in the forest, and the
forest is a very dangerous place for innocence. Could they long resist their
hearts, the flame that consumed them? Frédéric became daring, and Sister
Anne gave herself to him without regret, without remorse, for it seemed
natural to her to make the man happy whom she was sure that she should
love all her life.
In the transports of passion, Frédéric determined not to leave his
sweetheart in order to go to Grenoble to sleep. The eight leagues, going and
coming, kept them apart a few moments longer, and compelled him to leave
her a few moments earlier.
"No," he said, "I do not propose to go away from you any more, not for
an hour, not for a minute. When I cannot see you, why, I will sleep in the
woods, on the grass, near your cabin. As if I could be uncomfortable there!"
The lovely girl threw her arms about her lover's neck, kissed him, did a
thousand foolish things; her every gesture was eloquent of her happiness.
He would not leave her any more; therefore she would be happy every
minute. The poor child believed that it was possible. Suddenly, as if struck
by a new idea, she led Frédéric to the cabin and pointed to a window; it was
in the room where old Marguerite slept, and close beside it was another
window, in the dumb girl's room; she led Frédéric there, laid her head on
the back of her hand, drew him to her, and gazed passionately into his face.
The young man understood her; he pressed her to his heart, and cried:
"Yes, I will sleep with you, always by your side! Ah! how happy we
shall be!"
Thus did the child of nature soon discover what would forward her love;
for to love ardently requires neither art nor study; the heart is the best
master. Several times, Sister Anne manifested a wish to present Frédéric to
her adopted mother; she could not understand why he avoided her, until he
said:
"Marguerite would not leave you so entirely at liberty, if she knew that
you saw me every day; on the contrary, she would tell you that you must
avoid me and not speak to me."
These words were enough to prevent Anne from returning to the subject.
Forbid her to see Frédéric! order her to avoid him! why, that would be
condemning her to weep all her life. She felt that she would not have the
strength to obey; so it was much better to conceal her happiness from
Marguerite. The good old woman was growing weaker every day; she
rarely left her chair, where she dozed a great part of the time; so that it was
very easy to conceal the truth from her.
 The night succeeded that day on which Frédéric had won the sweetest of
all triumphs and had known the intoxication of a genuine passion. But the
approach of darkness did not drive him forth from the woods; on the
contrary, it was to increase his happiness tenfold.
He did not give a thought to his companions, to their anxiety about him,
or to their embarrassing position since he had all the money; he did not
remember that he had a horse belonging to the inn; he had no thought for
anything on earth but Sister Anne. Not even the memory of his father
interfered to mar his happiness. The present was all in all to him; Sister
Anne engrossed his heart and mind; he had never known a woman who
could be compared with her. Could he find elsewhere in the world so much
beauty, grace, innocence, and love? Her misfortune made her even dearer to
him. Frédéric was very romantic, and he did not look upon love so lightly
as most young men of his years; so that his conduct should appear less
extraordinary to us. And then, too, the dumb girl was so pretty! In the first
transports of love, a cabin, a forest, a desert, is what all lovers desire; but
this intoxication is of short duration. Will Frédéric be more constant?
In the path by the stream, where they sat together so often, he waited
until old Marguerite should fall asleep. Then Sister Anne was to steal out of
the cabin and come for her lover.
Frédéric tied his horse to an old ruined hovel, where a woodcutter had
once lived, and which he used as a stable.
The moon was shining brightly; it was reflected in the limpid water of
the brook and made the sparse clearings in the wood as light as day.
Frédéric listened intently for his sweetheart's footstep! The time seemed
very long; every minute robbed love of a sigh. He tried to look beneath the
black firs and distinguish the cabin. At last he heard a faint sound: it was
she. He could not see her, but his heart told him that she was near. As light
of foot as a fawn, as swift as the hunter's arrow, as beautiful as happiness,
the dumb girl sped through the paths of that forest, whose every corner she
knew. In an instant, she was beside her lover, who kissed her on the
forehead and could not forbear to gaze long and lovingly at her. He was
proud of his good fortune; the time and place, the joy that shone on her
features, the mystery that surrounded them—all seemed to make Sister
Anne lovelier than ever. Her hair, carelessly caught up so that a part of it
played about her neck; her shapely figure, which a light gown veiled
without concealing; and her eyes, so sweet and so overflowing with love,
renewed Frédéric's transports.
"Come, come," he said; "lead me!"
The girl took his arm and led him through the dense woods. They soon
reached and entered the humble cabin, which had become in his eyes the
most delicious retreat. He shared Sister Anne's bed; how could he envy
those who sleep in palaces? Happy lovers! let us leave them to enjoy their
happiness.
 XIII

DUBOURG PLAYS THE GRAND SEIGNEUR ONCE MORE.—NEW

ACQUAINTANCES
On the day following Frédéric's first absence, Monsieur Ménard, having
risen early, burst into Dubourg's chamber, crying with a triumphant air:
"I have found it, monsieur le baron; I am certain that I have found it."
"Found what?" said Dubourg, who was just awake; "your receipt for
keeping eggs fresh?"
"No; but what it was that charmed monsieur le comte so yesterday; that
wonderful place where he passed the day."
"Bah! you say you know where he was?"
"Yes! I would stake my head on it!"
"Tell me, then."
"It was the Château de Bayard, which must be in this neighborhood, in
the valley of Grésivaudan."
"The Château de Bayard? Faith! it's quite possible; however, we'll ask
him at breakfast."
But Frédéric did not appear at breakfast. Dubourg summoned one of the
servants.
"Has our companion gone away already?"
"Yes, monsieur, at daybreak; he took the first horse that was ready, and
went off at a gallop."
"Gone again! and left us here, perhaps for the whole day!"
"I am convinced that it's the Château de Bayard that has turned his
head."
"Hum! I'm very much afraid myself that it's some more modern marvel.
However, as we have nothing better to do, let's go and see the ruins of this
château, and we can look for Frédéric there; what do you say, Monsieur
Ménard?"
"I agree with you perfectly, monsieur le baron; but perhaps we shall do
well to carry a pâté or a chicken, for we probably shall not be able to get a
dinner at the château."
"You speak like the grammar, Monsieur Ménard; we will provide
ourselves with supplies; it may not be very chivalrous, but it is prudent.
Besides, we are travelling as amateur troubadours simply; and, however
beautiful a view may be, however imposing a ruin, we belong to that class
of small-minded mortals who must dine every day. Ah! Monsieur Ménard,
we are not romantic! It was very lucky for us that we were not born in the
days of Amadis and the four sons of Aymon."
"Faith! that is true, monsieur le baron; for they didn't know how to
truffle a chicken in those days, or cook filets de sole au gratin."
Dubourg inquired the way to the valley of Grésivaudan, Monsieur
Ménard filled his pockets with provisions, and our travellers set forth. They
were told that it was a short three leagues to the Château de Bayard; but
Ménard suggested a halt every half-hour. The baron invariably complied,
and produced a bottle of the best wine he had been able to find at their inn;
Ménard spread his provisions on the turf, on a large sheet of paper, and the
travellers renewed their strength. When Dubourg caught sight of some
tempting fruit, he would climb the tree to obtain some for dessert; and
finally he cut a number of branches and, by spreading his handkerchief over
them, constructed a little tent, so that they could dine in the shade.
"One would hardly suspect that the man who does this is a noble
palatine!" cried Ménard.
"Why not, pray?" rejoined Dubourg; "the Princess Nausicaa made her
own lye; Augustus's daughters spun their father's robes; Dionysius the
Younger was a school teacher at Corinth; the son of Perseus, King of
Macedonia, was a carpenter at Rome, as Peter the Great was in Holland; so
it doesn't seem to me that I derogate from my rank by making a tent in
Dauphiné."
Monsieur Ménard, having nothing to reply, simply bowed, murmuring:
"Variant sententiæ."
At last, our two travellers discovered the ruins of the Château de Bayard,
of which only the four towers remain standing; but they did not find
Frédéric gazing in veneration upon them.
"Well, do you see him, Monsieur Ménard?" said Dubourg.
"The château?"
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