If Marie will follow me, what a future! We would retire to some solitary place, where I would spend the rest of my life at her side.
Though I am young, I have seen so much of life, I have suffered so much, I have learned so much about men and things, and have been so weary of them, that it would be rapture to me, this solitary and peaceful life of trusting love.
And besides she has in herself so many resources that fit her for such a life of isolation: heart, soul, mind, artistic talents, an angelic disposition, adorable simplicity, the imagination of a young girl who can please, occupy, or amuse herself with the veriest trifle.
She must follow me, she will follow me.
CHAPTER XXX
THE FLIGHT
SERVAL, 10th March, 18—.
I open again this journal which I have not written a line in for three months.
I wish to write one more date, one last page here at Serval, in this poor old paternal château that I am about to leave, perhaps, for ever.
Strange coincidence! It was here that my mundane life began with my love for Hélène.