No: after mature reflection, he was sure that there was nothing that need make him ashamed.
Indeed, when one is not married, is he required to be so absolutely faithful? And what is a man to do, when things fall in his way?
The eyes see before one has had an opportunity to prevent them! Even after marriage, can one refrain from being moved by the sight of youthful loveliness? Can one control the movements of his blood? Desire is not a sin, and so long as Livette knew nothing, so long as she did not suffer through him, what reason had he, in all frankness, for self-reproach?
Nothing had come about by his procurement. He was still determined not to speak to the gipsy woman—but he would be a great fool not to put out his hand if the golden peach should offer itself to him voluntarily.
And the salt breeze that blew across the rushes, arousing the passions of the wild cattle, rushed through his veins, causing the blood to rise in sudden flushes to his cheeks.
Of what avail against that breeze, which the heifers inhale with delight, is the “I will not” of a young man who feels his youth? The good Lord forgives it in others. “I have been worrying a great deal over a very small matter of late,” thought Renaud. And he sagely concluded that he would return at once to Saintes-Maries, to set Livette’s mind at rest, as it was his duty to do first of all, without avoiding or seeking out the other.
Meanwhile, what had Livette been doing?
When she left the curé, almost at the same moment that Renaud was unhorsing Rampal, Livette had no wish but to take her horse and ride home at once, without even waiting for dinner.
She felt that she was lost in such close proximity to the ill-omened gipsies.
Her first thought was that Renaud, if he had overtaken Rampal, whom he could not fail to master, would go without loss of time to the Château d’Avignon.