Volume VI Part 26 (1/2)
What luck the deadcoreed on her part tofello had she succeeded in ht of all the hidden mysteries of people's lives He remembered what had been whispered about the Count de Vaudrec, who had dowered and married her off it was said
What would she do now? Whom would shefelloith a future before hiher class Forestier? Had she any projects, any plans, any settled ideas? Hoould have liked to know that But why this anxiety as to what she would do? He asked himself this, and perceived that his uneasiness was due to one of those half-formed and secret ideas which one hides fro one's self to the very bottom
Yes, why should he not atte and redoubtable he would be with her beside him!
How quick, and far, and surely he would fly! And why should he not succeed too? He felt that he pleased her, that she had for him more thanup between two kindred spirits and which partake as much of silent seduction as of a species of ent, resolute, and tenacious, she would have confidence in hirave circuht he not to see in this a kind of choice, a species of confession If she had thought of him just at the moment she was about to becoht of one as again to become her companion and ally? An impatient desire to know this, to question her, to learn her intentions, assailed him He would have to leave on the next day but one, as he could not remain alone with her in the house So it was necessary to be quick, it was necessary before returning to Paris to become acquainted, cleverly and delicately, with her projects, and not to allow her to go back on thee herself irrevocably
The silence in the rooular and metallic tick of the pendulum of the clock on the mantelpiece
He murmured: ”You must be very tired?”
She replied: ”Yes; but I am, above all, overwheling strangely in this gloolanced at the deadthem, as it had done some hours before
Duroy resumed: ”Oh! it is a heavy blow for you, and such a coe in your existence, a shock to your heart and your whole life”
She gave a long sigh, without replying, and he continued, ”It is so painful for a young woman to find herself alone as you will be”
He paused, but she said nothing, and he again went on, ”At all events, you know the compact entered into between us You canto you”
She held out her hand, giving him at the same time one of those sweet, sad looks which stir us to the very marrow
”Thank you, you are very kind,” she said ”If I dared, and if I could do anything for you, I, too, should say, 'You may count upon me'”
He had taken the proffered hand and kept it clasped in his, with a burning desire to kiss it Heit to his htly feverish and perfumed, to his lips for some time Then, when he felt that his friendly caress was on the point of becoed, he let fall the little hand It sank back gently onto the knee of its ravely: ”Yes, I shall be very lonely, but I shall strive to be brave”
He did not kno to give her to understand that he would be happy, very happy, to have her for his wife in his turn Certainly he could not tell her so at that hour, in that place, before that corpse; yet he uous, decorous, and co under their words, and which express all one wants to by their studied reticence But the corpse incommoded him, the stiffened corpse stretched out before them, and which he felt between them For some time past, too, he fancied he detected in the close atmosphere of the roo fro chest, the first whiff of carrion which the dead lying on their bed throw out to the relatives watching them, and hich they soon fill the hollow of their coffin
”Cannot we open thea little?” said Duroy ”It seems to me that the air is tainted”
”Yes,” she replied, ”I have just noticed it, too”
He went to theand opened it All the perfu the flahted candles beside the bed The , her full ht upon the white walls of the villas and the broad glittering expanse of the sea Duroy, drawing in the air to the full depth of his lungs, felt himself suddenly seized with hope, and, as it were buoyed up by the approach of happiness He turned round, saying: ”Cohtful”
She came quietly, and leant on the -sill beside him Then he murmured in a low tone: ”Listen to me, and try to understand what I want to tell you Above all, do not be indignant atto you of such a matter at such a moment, for I shall leave you the day after to-morrow, and when you return to Paris it may be too late I am only a poor devil without fortune, and with a position yet to make, as you know But I have a firht track With a ets; with one who is starting, one never knohere he may finish
So much the worse, or so much the better In short, I told you one day at your house that htest dream would have been to have married a woman like you I repeat this wish to you now Do not answer, letto you The time and place would render that odious I wish only not to leave you ignorant that you can make me happy with a word; that you can make me either a friend and brother, or a husband, at your will; that my heart and myself are yours
I do not want you to answer me now I do not want us to speak any ain in Paris you will let me knohat you have resolved upon Until then, not a word Is it not so?” He had uttered all this without looking at her, as though scattering his words abroad in the night before him She seemed not to have heard theht before her with a fixed and vague stare at the vast landscape lit up by theelbow, silent and reflecting Then sheround, returned towards the bed
He followed her When he drew near he recognized that Forestier's body was really beginning to smell, and drew his chair to a distance, for he could not have stood this odor of putrefaction long He said: ”He ”
”Yes, yes, it is arranged,” she replied ”The undertaker will be here at eight o'clock”