midday
A long avenue , straight as a ruler , strewn with yellow sand and bordered with young birch-trees , met his eyes ... . With the eagerness of a man given up to dreaming , he pictured to himself little feminine feet tripping along yellow sand , and quite unexpectedly had a clear vision in his imagination of the girl who had kissed him and whom he had succeeded in picturing to himself the evening before at supper . This image remained in his brain and did not desert him again . At midday there was a shout in the rear near the string of wagons : `` Easy ! Eyes to the left ! Officers ! '' The general of the brigade drove by in a carriage with a pair of white horses .