"Yet," he thought, "I must. I love her and these innocent amusements are really too pernicious. Shall I go away? That would be to condemn myself to a melancholy solitude, with, perhaps, bitter consolations. Marry her, then? Certainly, but it can't come off to-morrow, and we are too much aquiver with desire to wait patiently. And suppose, when we are engaged, we have to submit ourselves to the law of the traditional sentimentality.... No, let us be peasants, children of this kindly earth. Let us, like them, make love first, at haphazard, where the paths of the wood lead us; then, when we are certain of the consent of our flesh, we will call our fellow men to witness."
He went on looking and found what he wanted, but when he had found, he started searching again, for he was ashamed of himself.
"Perhaps," he thought, answering his own objections, "one may have to behave like a cad in order to be happy. What, shall I submit myself to the prejudices of the world at the moment when life offers to my kisses a virgin who is unaware of them? I will have the courage of my caddishness."
Time passed and his eyes examined the heaps of leaves with decreasing interest. His imagination returned pleasantly to the joys of a little before, and he longed to be able to lay his trembling hand once more on Rose's breast and to drink her breath in a kiss.
M. Hervart was recovering all his self-possession. He concluded:
"Well, it's very curious adventure and one that will increase the sum of my knowledge and of my pleasures."
Rose, feeling the pressure of his fingers, had the courage, at last, to look at him. He smiled and she was reassured.
"You won't leave me, will you?" she said. "Promise. When we are married well live wherever you like, but till then, I want you near me, in my house, in my garden, my woods, my fields. Do you understand?"
"Child, I love you and I understand that you love me too."
"Why 'too'? I loved you first; I don't like that word; it expresses a kind of imitation."