That the impetus of spring lets it beneficial effect be felt is without a doubt, as Léonce, currently in the countryside, feels strangely disturbed by those warm scents which merge beings with nature. Poor Léonce, who is at his aunt’s home by chance, has allowed Poupette to pay a visit to her mother, who suffers from severe rheumatism. Solitude weighs heavily upon him ; not on his shoulders, let it be clear, but elsewhere: on his heart. We must pity the poor soul, and what’s more, he cannot take one step – whether in the house or out in the garden – without surprising some couple on the verge of kissing. The gardener and the housekeeper, the butler and the cook, even his aunt and uncle feel overwhelmed by a wave of tenderness, and they show it. Bothered by it all, Léonce decides to leave, but on his way, he sees the groundskeeper on the threshold of the villa, overtaken by madness, kissing the maid. «How cruel and indecent!» – exclaims Léonce, raising his arms to the sky as if to invoke a curse from the Heavens; but right in the middle, his gesture is interrupted…

Brochure from Société des Etablissements Guamont, n.4400