"You were sent home... for serious misconduct." "Period." "Write to your teacher... begging him... to take you back." "Period." "Regrets and best wishes." "Come on!" "Hurry Up!" "Write." "Regrets and best wishes." "Period." "A tubercular hip which I had almost until 1890 had made me timid and unhappy." "I still see myself trailing the nimble schoolboys down the streets around our house hopping miserably on one leg." "What's more... my mother hardly ever let me go out." "So as long as daylight lingered," "I would hole up in our attic and I would read." "I've told you not to run around with those urchins." "It's cold this evening." "It's like winter, and it's only October." "And my hat hasn't come!" "If it comes tomorrow..." "I'll have to spend my whole Sunday making it over." "I intend to go fishing." "Poor Francois." "You have to go to mass alone and perhaps vespers too." "But someone came and took all this away, blew out the candle lighting the sweet, maternal face bent over our supper." "Someone put out the lamp of our contentment." "And that person was Augustin Meaulnes." ""Big Meaulnes"." "He arrived just when I was cured and it was the beginning of a new life." "Heavens, where has he gone?" "Has he run off?" "May I help you?" "Look, Francois!" "Are you Mme Seurel?" "I have brought my son, Augustin." "We came from Ferte d'Angillon." "I wish to board him with you to take the advanced course." "Expense is no object." "He is all I have now, but... he will be better off with a family." "He is so independent." "He will walk miles to get me wild ducks' eggs." "The other day he set nets..." "I thought that was you just now." "Is that you, Augustin?" "Are you coming?" "I found them in your attic." "Hadn't you ever seen them?" "Hey, Meaulnes!" "Faster, Meaulnes!" "Big Meaulnes!" "Me next, Meaulnes!" "Who is going to the station with Francois to fetch his grandparents?" "Let Meaulnes go!" "Meaulnes!" "Let Meaulnes go!" "It will be Moucheboeuf." "So your grandparents are coming soon?" "Yes, tomorrow." "I'm meeting them with old Martin's donkey on the 4:02 train." "With Fromentin's mare you could meet them at Vierzon and save an hour." "You'd be back before the donkey was hitched up." "He's right." "She's fast, Fromentin's mare that is." "And he don't mind lending her." "Meaulnes has disappeared." "Second problem." "This one is child's play." "You're sure it's for M. Seurel?" "Maybe not." "Stop!" "Stop!" "Monsieur!" "Meaulnes has gone." "Meaulnes has gone!" "Meaulnes has gone to the station!" "Did you send that boy for the cart to pick up your parents at Vierzon?" "It did look a bit odd." "Certainly not!" "Francois, you will go all the same." "Meaulnes won't get there in time." "What's the matter?" "Is this the road to Vierzon?" "No, not that way!" "Where does that great lout think he's going?" "I'll find out where we are, old girl." "This young man is lost." "I left my cart in the woods." "Which way is La Motte?" "Easy, Monsieur, but it's a long ways and it's getting dark now." "Stay and have supper." "You can sleep here and go on tomorrow." "You'd better fetch your horse." "Is it that boy you are fretting about?" "Good night!" "Time for bed." "Can you direct me to M. Fromentin?" "I found his mare coming back alone near the Saint-Loup-des-Bois road." "She's tired and a little lame." "I'll take her home." " Won't you have a glass of wine?" " No, thanks." "They'll be worried at home." "This way explanations are unnecessary." "Later we'll see what to say." "Madame Meaulnes has to know." "Let's not write her yet." "Well, is the wanderer back?" "He went home to his mother." "Now don't fret." "Good." "Just as I thought." "The date of the Battle of Marignan?" "1200, Monsieur." "I'm back, Monsieur." "So I see." "Go take your place." "I'd like to go to bed, Monsieur." "I haven't slept for three nights." "All right, go then." "So one can't have a minute's peace here!" "If you don't like it, you should have stopped where you were." "Now then, you!" "Get out of it!" "Because you ran away for 3 days, you think you are the boss now!" "You can't turn us out!" "He can't stand anything now." "He puts on side." "Does he suppose we do not know where he's been?" "You ass!" "I don't know myself." "Tell me what it is." "Where'd you get it?" "Are you going away again?" "I'm coming too." "You must take me!" "I can't, Francois." "If I knew the way, you could come." "Then you can't go either." "You're right." "I have to find it on the map." "Bully!" "You and your secret map!" "No wonder they are all against you." "All!" "Go back to bed." "I promise not to go without you." "I've got to tell you about it." "It's too much to keep to myself." "I lost my way in the most desolate part of the Sologne." "I saw no one all morning but one shepherdess in the distance." "One thing bothers me." "They'll never keep Daniel off the yellow pony." "Today we can do whatever we want even get ourselves hurt." "We're the ones running the party." "Shh... no noise!" "It's time he woke up." "One's gone out." "I'll have to light it again." "Why these lights out in the country?" "Nobody can see them." "There will be people arriving all night." "And they'll be glad to see them." "Wonder why they got acrobats for a fancy party like this?" "That's no mystery." "The kids are boss here." "Come - time for dinner." "Come on, Mr. Sleepy-head." "Wake up and even if you're nobody like me... dress like a marquis... like a king... like a prince... however you like... and come join the ball, since that is the pleasure of these little gentlemen... and these young ladies." "Do you know her?" "Mamma said she's a pretty Pierrot." "Who is?" "Frantz's fiancee." "Dominique, go look for mother!" "Frantz can't possibly get here with her before three tomorrow." "You'll make me angry!" "You're as silly as ever!" "And you, Adele is still as stubborn." "But surely Frantz de Galais hasn't invited us here to wait three days?" "Is she as pretty as they say?" "My good sir only Frantz could say." "He met her at Bourges." "She was desperate." "Her father, a weaver, had turned her out." "It seems she is very pretty, and Frantz promptly decided to marry her." "And as his family always indulges his whims..." " Let me through!" " No!" "Let me through." "You are beautiful." "Will you forgive me?" "I forgive you." "But I must go back to the children." "Won't you stay a moment?" "Please." "I don't even know who you are." "I don't know your name either." "I must go." "We're near Frantz's house." "My guests are waiting." "I am Mlle. Yvonne de Galais." "The name I gave you was more beautiful." "That reminded me of a dream... a vision that I had as a child." "I have never told anyone." "I awoke one morning not in my own room but in a long green room, with tapestries like the leaves of trees." "The light was soft." "A girl was sewing, with her back to me, as if waiting for me to wake up." "I slept again." "I swore that next time I would get up." "Will you let me come back one day to this beautiful place?" "I will expect you." "We are children." "We have been foolish." "We must not go back in the same boat." "I don't know you but I'm pleased to see you." "Well, that's it." "The party's over." "You can tell them." "I've come back alone." "My fiancee will not come." "She's gone." "She left word that she can't be my wife." "What use to explain?" "No one can understand." "I am leaving again." "My shoes are scarlet." "Goodbye, love, goodbye..." " What's happening?" " All at once they decided..." "Frantz and his fiancee aren't coming." "Someone said: if we left?" "So everyone's leaving." "You can come with us." "But hurry" " I'm going to hitch up." "Wait for me." "I'm coming." ""I no longer wish to live." "May my sister forgive me but she could not have helped." "Frantz de Galais."" "Going to Sainte-Agathe?" "Going to Sainte-Agathe?" "We're going that way." "Get in!" "He dropped me west of Sainte-Agathe." "There." "And when I left I had headed east." " Maybe it's not so far." " But you drove all night coming back." "Come on!" "Charge!" "Boarding party stand by!" "What on earth!" "Oh, it's you, M. Pasquier!" "I was going to lock the stables then what do I see?" "Two big lads like look-outs over near the crossroads." "They saw me coming and galloped off your way." "I didn't wait." "I got my lantern and said I'm telling M. Seurel!" "Lost no time." "Just came straightaway to warn M. Seurel." "Let's go see." "Look out!" "The thieves!" "We got them." "It's a dead end." "Get the big one first!" "Charge!" "Meaulnes!" "Behind you!" "Get the map!" "Now we'll know his secret!" "That map won't take you far." "What's going on?" "Nothing." "Might be those tent show chaps." "They're hanging about for good weather and they're always up to something." "We put on shows everywhere, except in winter." "Then sometimes I go to school." "For a change." "What do you live on then?" "On what we made the summer before," "I suppose." "It's Ganache, my partner, who keeps the accounts." "He looks after the animals too." "The best known of wild birds..." "Comma." "the laborer's friend... is the lark..." "Comma." "is the lark..." "Comma." "his constant companion." "Whose is that?" " Yours, Meaulnes?" " No, sir." "It's mine, Monsieur." "But..." "I place them at your disposal." "He stays to sweep today." "You stay with me." "While I hold him, grab the map." "I won't tell you." "What's on this map..." "You have to!" "We joined you because Meaulnes kept it secret." "I am the boss." "Not any more!" "Right, boys?" "They tried to get your map." "They knew I'd make peace with you." "But I saved it." "Friend!" "I've been to that place too." "As soon as I heard about your adventure, I knew." "I stole your map to make sure." "But I'm like you...." "I don't know the way back... nor the name of the place... but I've added some directions." "You should know," "I'm not like other chaps." "Two months ago I put a bullet in my head." "I wanted to die." "And since I failed," "I live now for what fun I can get out of it like a child." "I have no more family, no home, no sweetheart," "nothing... just playfellows." "Who've turned on you." "Delouche is the worst." "A boy playing the big man." "That makes me sick." "You be my friends!" "Look," "I knew your secret and I kept it." "If ever again..." "I'm on the edge of hell as I once was swear that you'll answer my call!" "I'll call you like this." "Meaulnes, swear first." " I swear." " I swear." "The girl you met spends Easter in Paris." "I can tell you the address." "Quick!" "Ladies and gentlemen, to salute the spring tonight at eight a colossal spectacle!" "Acrobatics!" "And everything-everything-everything!" "You saw my success!" "Big show?" "Big chicken-thieves!" "Moucheboeuf's missing 15, he says." "My washboard's been lifted." "That's got to stop." "My uncle's told the police." "Careful, he's watching us." "Yes, a chicken-thief, him and his Ganache!" "If I'd seen him that night," "I'd have shot him like a rabbit!" "Delouche says you steal chickens!" "What else, in winter?" "I won't associate with a thief!" "Begin!" "Curtain!" "Curtain!" "The Pierrot from the chateau!" "How could I miss it!" "He was looking at Delouche." "It's Frantz de Galais!" "It's me!" "We'll come tomorrow." "He'll take me there... this time, what a journey!" "He let you see who he was because he planned to get away." "I'm sure he'll come back and signal us." "Remember the promise!" "After all, he left the map." "We can start searching again." "You're right." "We should be able to find our way out of the forest in one morning." "I knew you'd be here!" "The others have gone to the woods to hunt birds' eggs." "I'm going to the woods myself." "I might run into them." "Coming?" "No... because of my father." "But I'll be waiting." "They said, tell M. Seurel to find us if he wants us." "That gave Delouche a laugh!" "We'll catch them in their nests." "Moucheboeuf will call as if he were alone." "Francois, you circle the woods and cut them off." "He's put the brood in his shirt." "They've done in there what they liked." "It's all right!" "I didn't find anything." "I'll ask my mother to send me to school in Paris." "Easter's coming." "I'm bound to find her in Paris." "As soon as you do, write me, won't you?" "I promise." "So, Francois, will you come with me?" "Go on, go with him." "Come on, Francois, we'll go into Delouche's shop." "The old woman's gone." " Hello, Madame Delouche." " Hello, Fanny." "Why did Meaulnes leave without saying anything?" " I know." " What do you know?" "I know that his story is no secret." "I'm the only one who knows the story of Meaulnes." "So tell us." "Well?" "What did Meaulnes do after the party?" "But that's all." "The fiancee didn't show." "The party ended." "It's a wedding." "I've seen a stranger one than that." "This chateau." "There must be locals who've heard of it." "He should have told us about it and shown us his map, instead of showing it to a Gipsy." "Don't you see?" "That Gipsy was Frantz, the son from the chateau." "I should have turned him in to the police." "He was the one who hurt Meaulnes." "He hurt the whole region." "And he'll do more harm." "The young girl?" "Meaulnes will marry her after doing his military service." "I had three letters from Meaulnes." "The first came two days after he left." ""As soon as I reached Paris today" "I went to the house the player mentioned." "I saw nothing." "No one was there." "The curtains were drawn." "It's foolish to hope that one day, between them" "Yvonne de Galais might appear." "There will never be anyone." "At nightfall, as I was leaving, I noticed a girl waiting in the cold for someone... something."" "The second came three months later." "It gave no explanation for the delay." "He seemed to be breaking with me... as if with his past." ""Yesterday I learned all hope is lost." "The girl was still there waiting, like me." "I spoke to her, thinking she must know the house."" "Excuse me... do you know the people who live here?" "I know they used to come here." "And now... you don't know?" "I heard the son ran away, apparently the girl is married." ""Sitting on the bench... shivering... miserable..." "I keep imagining someone will take my arm gently." "I would turn around..." "And it would be her." "'I'm late', is all she would say." "All the pain and all the madness would melt away."" "That was in June." "He'd just learned that the girl was married." "I've had no news since then." "Bah, he'll find another girl." "Don't say that, understand?" "Stop!" "Stop!" "Have you heard anything about the people from that house?" "I know nothing more." "You don't know what it's like to be abandoned." "You don't know which way to turn." "Each evening you think it's all over." "Nothing seems worthwhile." "How to go on?" "Don't trust me." "I was engaged once, and I left him." "Maybe he really loved me." "Whatever I do is foolish." "He treated me like a princess - me, a working girl." "But I still love him." "Well, what do you want?" "Will you propose too?" ""Francois, the other day, I asked you to think of me." "Now, on the contrary, it is better to forget me." "It would be better to forget everything."" "Sure, I've been to lots of chateaux." "That one's Les Sablonnieres." "Maybe it's the one you want." "M. de Galais, used to throw amazing parties." "Last time, it was last winter..." "No, the one before." "For his son's engagement, they say." "He went off and hasn't been seen since." "The old lady is dead." "They had to sell everything or almost... they kept a cottage and a farm." "Your uncle would know more." "You can borrow my bike." "You'll have a chance to see Mlle. de Galais." "She does her own shopping nowadays." " Isn't she married?" " Why, no..." "Interested?" "Not I..." "But I know who may be:" "my friend, Augustin Meaulnes." "I can speak to her father if you'd like." "No... no..." "I don't even know where he is." "I'll try..." "I'll try to see his mother." "Let's dance, cousin Francois." "He'd just learned that the girl was married." "It was more than a year ago." "The last time he wrote was last autumn." "He asked me to forget him... to forget everything." "Look, that's her." "Francois Seurel, my cousin the one who's going to be a teacher." "Has M. de Galais come too?" "Yes, you'll see him." "And how are you?" "How was school this week?" "Did you get good marks?" "So you will be a teacher soon?" "Yes, when school starts again." "I have already gotten an appointment." "I'd like to teach, if my father would let me." "I'd teach little boys, like your mother." "I'd teach them to be good, not to want to be wanderers." "I'd show them how to find the happiness near us, which we often don't recognize." "Just as some big foolish fellow may be looking for me." "This big foolish fellow... maybe I know him." "It's quieter in the dining room." "I'm about to leave." "But M. de Galais is having a visit." "Ah, Francois, we're organizing an outing by the river." "Mademoiselle, will you come?" "You can bring your friend Meaulnes isn't that his name?" "Francois, you're just in time." "We're just getting Augustin ready to go." "Is he leaving?" "Are you leaving?" "For long?" "Yes." "For long." "You know how much that strange affair meant." "I lived for that." "Trying to live like everyone else" "I only stored up remorse." "When you've stepped once into heaven, how can you come back?" "But explain - why this long trip?" "Do you remember that promise I made to Frantz?" " Is that all?" " Yes, but there is wrong I need to right." "I would have like to have seen Mlle. de Galais once more..." "Once more." "You see, I'm sure of it now." "When I had first discovered Les Sablonnieres," "I was pure." "A purity that I will never attain again." "Only in death, will I recapture the beauty of that moment." "What if I were to tell you that all hope is not lost?" "What do you mean?" "Suppose she didn't come?" "But she promised." "Please be patient." "Listen, I'm going back." "I feel as if she won't come if I stay." "I'm glad to find you alone." "I wouldn't show anyone else my poor old horse." "Ah, there's Augustin Meaulnes." "Aren't you going on the river?" "The current is too strong." "We need your motor-launch." "We sold that." "Mademoiselle, I have to discuss hunting with your father." "I have never forgotten the pond, the house." "It was so strange, so marvelous." "Are there still pony races?" "We sold the ponies too." "In my room there was a broken lute and the gilded books..." "Nothing left?" "There was a big mirror too... where I first heard you playing your piano." "We no longer have that beautiful place." "We were ruined then, without knowing it." "Frantz had run up debts." "After my mother died, we sold it." "If Frantz came back, if the wedding did take place, maybe things could be as they were." "But can the past be reborn?" "Who knows?" "My shoes are scarlet..." "Goodbye, love, goodbye..." "Listen!" "My shoes are scarlet..." "Goodbye, love, for aye." "I'm going to see!" "He's unhappy," "perhaps I can do nothing for him." " Drop it!" " What's got into you?" "Who'd tie him up that way!" " This is no saddle-horse!" " It's me..." "Shut up!" "I saw you yanking at him like a fool!" "Naval officers don't..." "My horse..." "Oh, he's yours?" "I don't envy you!" "Some cold water?" "If we waded him..." "While he can still walk he should go home for good." "It's Ganache!" "Let's run them off before it all starts again!" "No..." "No..." "I'll make them listen to reason." "There are so many things to tell you from before you came." "It was over there." "Maybe it's a poacher." "You know it's not." "Don't be afraid." "It's me" " Francois." " What do you want?" " What is it you want, Frantz?" "Why are you hiding?" "I'm so unhappy... so unhappy." "Be reasonable, Frantz..." "Come with me!" "I'll take you to them later, it'll all be over." "He's forgotten me." "Meaulnes forgets his promises!" "Grow up!" "Don't let your foolishness wreck the happiness of people you love and who love you." "Nobody else can save me." "My sister will let him go, she's never refused me anything." "I'll close the shutters." "It's getting dark." "Don't stop playing, I beg you." "Suppose I promise that Meaulnes will do it?" "He will succeed?" "He can do anything!" "Stop!" "Stop!" " What does he want?" " He's miserable." "He wants you to help find his fiancee." "I thought so." "I tried to put that out of my mind." "Where is he?" "I said you'd look for that girl." "I told him to come back in a year." "Why did you do that?" "I've got to talk to him now!" "But I thought I'd go myself!" "He must forgive me or I can never see her again." "Don't be stupid!" "For a childish promise, you'll ruin your happiness?" "If that promise were all." "I met a girl in Paris..." "I should have married." "What?" "Get dressed quickly." "I dreamed you quit loving me." "We're late." "Our friends are waiting." "They can see your legs." "You ought to be careful!" "Our friends lent us rings so we'd look married." "I think that was bad luck." "That day, during our walk our friends quarreled" "and left us." "Since we're being married, I want to give you something more precious than anything." "Burn them." "You... you know Frantz de Galais?" "He tried to kill himself." "He was my friend and I have taken his fiancee." "You had no faith and you've lost everything!" "The damage you've done!" "Leave me!" "I always felt sorry for her." "It hurts me so to hurt those I love that in hurting them..." "I seem to punish myself." "My cruelty is my own penance." "I will be lost." "Calm yourself." "I left her and then I tried to find her again." "I searched for her for more than a year." "My letters were returned." "I looked everywhere!" "At her mother's... in Paris..." "I was about to go away again." "But she was gone." "I must find her for Frantz." "But it's too late." "We'd better go back now." "He went away." "Three days ago." "The day after his wedding?" "When will he be back?" "Yvonne is in bed." "She has a high fever." "Continue." "Go on out." "In the courtyard." "How happy I am that they let me see you." "I was very worried." "I came twice a week for news." "It was always the same." "Oh, but now it's over." "Come as much as you like." "We can take walks." "Save that till Augustin comes." "When will that be?" "When Frantz was little this was his house." "He lived here like a grown man." "He was never afraid to sleep alone." "We admired him so that we never worried." "I come here often." "Now other children come to play." "I play with them." "I pretend they are Frantz's old friends." "It's here he'd have brought his bride." "Sit down, Francois." "It's nice today." "You must be very happy." "Yes, very happy." "It will be in October, after your holiday." "You shouldn't have cut your vacation short." "I had to keep you company." "I am always alone." "Perhaps, for him, the taste for adventure is overwhelming." "Only we, only I am guilty." "We said to him here is the girl at the end of all your dreams." "Who would not run away." "But you were that happiness... that girl." "But that is just the trouble!" "I told myself: perhaps I can't help... and I thought: he looked for me so long, and I love him... surely I will make him happy." "But when I saw him near me, so feverish, with that mysterious remorse," "I knew I was just a women like others." "He said to me:" "I am not worthy of you." "I tried to console him, to reassure him... but nothing would calm him." "So I said: if you must go away for a while, for your peace of mind," "I myself ask you to go." "He left next morning." "He embraced me as if leaving for a long voyage." "He never wrote?" "Never." "It's a girl!" "A fine baby." "The bruise on her head makes her cry." "The doctor says it will mend itself." "She's already laughed!" "She will squeeze your finger!" "Please do not ring." " How is she?" " She almost died in the night." " And the child?" " She is well." "We mustn't frighten her." "Tell her she's getting better." "She doesn't look too bad." "Francois... find Augustin." "Don't worry, pet." "It's nothing." "You needn't be afraid." "Monsieur, the young lady died yesterday, at nightfall." "You can go home." "There is no school today." "Tell the others." "Look at these pictures." "When she was three... then afterwards, when she was bigger..." "Francois, do you remember?" "We can't get the coffin up the stairs." "We'll have to lower it from the window." "Rather... than such a thing, I will carry her down." "No." "Let me do it!" " Goodbye." " Goodbye, Godfather." "Goodbye, Godfather." "She's dead, isn't she?" "There is your daughter." "I brought the others back." "They are at their house." "Go, coachman."