one in the morning
He would be better off ; he might aspire to a portion of the lady 's spare hours . But this notion , it is not surprising to hear , did not appeal to our Gérard . He sees in the same paper that a _ fête _ is going to take place in his old country of the Valois ; and when at last he goes home two `` faces in the fire '' rise for him , those of the little peasant girl Sylvie and of the châtelaine Adrienne -- beautiful , triumphant , but destined to be a nun . Unable to sleep , he gets up at one in the morning , and manages to find himself at Loisy , the scene of the _ fête _ , in time . One would fain go on , but duty forbids a larger allotment of space ; and , after all , the thing itself may be read by any one in half an hour or so , and will not , at least ought not , to be forgotten for half a lifetime -- or a whole one . The finding of Sylvie , no longer a _ little _ girl , but still a girl , still not married , though , as turns out , about to be so , is chequered with all sorts of things -- sketches of landscape ; touches of literature ; black-and-white renderings of the _ Voyage à Cythère _ ; verses to Adrienne ; to the actress Aurélie -LRB- to become later the dream-Aurélia -RRB- ; and , lastly -- in the earlier forms of the piece at any rate -- snatches of folk-song , including that really noble ballad : Quand Jean Renaud de la guerre revint , which falls very little , if at all , short of the greatest specimens of English , German , Danish , or Spanish . And over and through it all , and in other pieces as well , there is the faint , quaint , music -- prose , when not verse -- which reminds one -LSB- 246 -RSB- somehow of Browning 's famous Toccata-piece .