[节选]THE MILLERS DAUGHTER

And there it was that Pere Merlier's mill enlivened with its

ticktack a corner of wild verdure.  The structure, built of plaster

and planks, seemed as old as the world.  It dipped partially in the

Morelle, which rounded at that point into a transparent basin.  A

sluice had been made, and the water fell from a height of several

meters upon the mill wheel, which cracked as it turned, with the

asthmatic cough of a faithful servant grown old in the house.  When

Pere Merlier was advised to change it he shook his head, saying that

a new wheel would be lazier and would not so well understand the

work, and he mended the old one with whatever he could put his hands

on: cask staves, rusty iron, zinc and lead.  The wheel appeared

gayer than ever for it, with its profile grown odd, all plumed with

grass and moss.  When the water beat upon it with its silvery flood

it was covered with pearls; its strange carcass wore a sparkling

attire of necklaces of mother-of-pearl.



The part of the mill which dipped in the Morelle had the air of a

barbaric arch stranded there.  A full half of the structure was

built on piles.  The water flowed beneath the floor, and deep places

were there, renowned throughout the district for the enormous eels

and crayfish caught in them.  Below the fall the basin was as clear

as a mirror, and when the wheel did not cover it with foam schools

of huge fish could be seen swimming with the slowness of a squadron. 

Broken steps led down to the river near a stake to which a boat was

moored.  A wooden gallery passed above the wheel.  Windows opened,

pierced irregularly.  It was a pell-mell of corners, of little

walls, of constructions added too late, of beams and of roofs, which

gave the mill the aspect of an old, dismantled citadel.  But ivy had

grown; all sorts of clinging plants stopped the too-wide chinks and

threw a green cloak over the ancient building.  The young ladies who

passed by sketched Pere Merlier's mill in their albums.



On the side facing the highway the structure was more solid.  A

stone gateway opened upon the wide courtyard, which was bordered to

the right and to the left by sheds and stables.  Beside a well an

immense elm covered half the courtyard with its shadow.  In the

background the building displayed the four windows of its second

story, surmounted by a pigeon house.  Pere Merlier's sole vanity was

to have this front plastered every ten years.  It had just received

a new coating and dazzled the village when the sun shone on it at

noon.