But Christiane had not returned to her room, as her husband supposed. As soon as she realized that she was alone with Paul she said to him in a very low tone, while she pressed his hand:
"So then you came. I was waiting for you for the past month. Every morning I kept asking myself, 'Shall I see him to-day?' and every night I kept saying to myself, 'It will be to-morrow then.' Why have you delayed so long, my love?"
He replied with some embarrassment: "I had matters to engage my attention—business."
She leaned toward him, murmuring: "It was not right to leave me here alone with them, especially in my state."
He moved his chair a little away from her.
"Be careful! We might be seen. These rockets light up the whole country around."
She scarcely bestowed a thought on it; she said: "I love you so much!" Then, with sudden starts of joy: "Ah! how happy I feel, how happy I feel at finding that we are once more together, here! Are you thinking about it? What joy, Paul! How we are going to love one another again!"
She sighed, and her voice was so weak that it seemed a mere breath.
"I feel a foolish longing to embrace you, but it is foolish—there!—foolish. It is such a long time since I saw you!"
Then, suddenly, with the fierce energy of an impassioned woman, to whom everything should give way: "Listen! I want—you understand—I want to go with you immediately to the place where we said adieu to one another last year! You remember well, on the road from La Roche Pradière?"