"No! no! Etienne, please let me remain a virtuous woman; I should be too angry with you afterwards; and after all, it is so horrid, so common. Cannot we love each other with a spiritual love only?... Oh! Etienne!"
But he was inexorable, and then she tried to get up and escape from his attacks.
In her fright she ran to the bed in order to hide herself behind the curtains; but it was a dangerous place of refuge, and he followed her. But in haste he took off his sword too quickly, and it fell on the floor with a crash.
And then—a prolonged, shrill child's cry came from the next room, the door of which had remained open.
"You have awakened the child," she whispered, "and perhaps he will not go to sleep again."
He was only fifteen months old, and slept in a room opening out of hers, so that she might be able to hear him.
The Captain exclaimed, ardently:
"What does it matter, Matilda? How I love you; you must come to me, Matilda."
But she struggled, and resisted in her fright.
"No! no! Just listen how he is crying; he will wake up the nurse, and what should we do if she were to come? We should be lost. Just listen to me, Etienne. When he screams at night his father always takes him into our bed, and he is quiet immediately; it is the only means of keeping him still. Do let me take him...."