Amelie in Love (The Seed and the Fruit)

370 pp. This is the story of a young girl who is courted by a boy--and who then falls in love with a man. Amelie is 17 when you first meet her. She has been raised in that most respectable of societies, a French country town in the early years of this century. She helps her mother in the family store (saucepans, sundries, and the most fragrant roasted coffee in town). She knows, without vanity, how proud her father is to have a daughter so tall, so pretty, and so good. She has not yet had a beau. She is totally innocent. A nice boy wants to marry her. Deferring to the judgment of her family, Amelie hesitantly becomes engaged. And then a man comes from Paris.