He sat down on the warm ground close to the heap of stones.
"You said I should leave the garden, but I don't think you meant like this. Did you?"
"No," he said.
"I think you thought we should be unhappy together. Well, we were never that. We were always very happy. I like to think of that. I come up here to think of that; of our happiness, and that we were always kind and tender to each other. Emile, if we hadn't been, if we had ever had even one quarrel, even once said cruel things to each other, I don't think I could bear it now. But we never did. God did watch us then, I think. God was with me so long as Maurice was with me. But I feel as if God had gone away from me with Maurice, as if they had gone together. Do you think any other woman has ever felt like that?"
"I don't think I am worthy to know how some women feel," he said, almost falteringly.
"I thought perhaps God would have stayed with me to help me, but I feel as if He hadn't. I feel as if He had only been able to love me so long as Maurice was with me."
"That feeling will pass away."
"Perhaps when my child comes," she said, very simply.
Artois had not known about the coming of the child, but Hermione did not remember that now.
"Your child!" he said.