Volume VI Part 52 (1/2)
He replied, sadly: ”It is no use howling He has run aith her, he has dishonored her The best thing is to give her to hiht way no one will be aware of this escapade”
She repeated, shaken by terrible emotion: ”Never, never; he shall never have Susan I will never consent”
Walter ot her It is done And he will keep her and hide her as long as we do not yield So, to avoid
scandal, we s she could not acknowledge, repeated: ”No, no, I will never consent”
He said, growing i about it It must be done Ah, the rascal, how he has done us! He is a sharp one All the saards position, but not as regards intelligence and prospects He will be a deputy and a y: ”I will never allow hietting angry and taking up, as a practical ue,” said he ”I tell you again that it must be so; it absolutely ret it With men of that stamp one never knohat may happen
You sa he overthrew in three articles that fool of a Laroche-Mathieu, and how he did it with dignity, which was infernally difficult in his position as the husband At all events, we shall see
It always coet out of it”
She felt a longing to screaround, to tear her hair out She said at length, in exasperated tones: ”He shall not have her I won't have it”
Walter rose, picked up his lamp, and remarked: ”There, you are stupid, just like all wo except from passion You do not kno to bend yourself to circumstances You are stupid I will tell you that he shallin his slippers He traversed--a cohtshi+rt--the broad corridor of the huge slu house, and noiselessly re-entered his roo, torn by intolerable grief She did not yet quite understand it She was only conscious of suffering Then it seemed to her that she could not reht
She felt within her a violent necessity of fleeing, of running away, of seeking help, of being succored She sought whom she could summon to her What man? She could not find one A priest; yes, a priest! She would throw herself at his feet, acknowledge everything, confess her fault and her despair He would understand that this wretch must not
marry Susan, and would prevent it She must have a priest at once But where could she find one? Whither could she go? Yet she could not remain like that
Then there passed before her eyes, like a vision, the cal on the waters She saw it as she saw it in the picture So he was calling her He was saying: ”Come to me; come and kneel at my feet I will console you, and inspire you hat should be done”
She took her candle, left the room, and went downstairs to the conservatory The picture of Jesus was right at the end of it in a slass door, in order that the dae the canvas It fore trees When Mada seen it before save full of light, she was struck by its obscure profundity The dense plants of the tropics made the ater being open, the air of this strange wood, enclosed beneath a glass roof, entered the chest with difficulty; intoxicated, caused pleasure and pain, and imparted a confused sensation of enervation, pleasure, and death The poor woman walked slowly, oppressed by the shadows, aht of her candle, extravagant plants, recallingcreatures, hideous deforht of the picture of Christ She opened the door separating her from it, and fell on her knees She prayed to hi forth words of true, passionate, and despairing invocations Then, the ardor of her appeal slackening, she raised her eyes towards hiuish He reseht of this solitary candle, lighting the picture froer Christ--it was her lover as looking at her They were his eyes, his forehead, the expression of his face, his cold and haughty air
She stae” rose to her lips All at once she thought that at that very hter He was alone with her somewhere He with Susan! She repeated: ”Jesus, Jesus!” but she was thinking of thehter and her lover They were alone in a rooht She saw them She saw them so plainly that they rose up before her in place of the picture They were so towards thehter by the hair and tear her frole her, this daughter who herself to this man She touched her; her hands encountered the canvas; she was pressing the feet of Christ She uttered a loud cry and fell on her back Her candle, overturned, went out
What took place then? She dreae and Susan continually passed before her eyes, with Christ blessing their horrible loves She felt vaguely that she was not in her room She wished to rise and flee; she could not A torpor had seized upon her, which fettered her lihtful and fantastic visions, lost in an unhealthy dreaendered in human minds by the soporific plants of the tropics, with their strange and oppressive perfu Madame Walter was found stretched out senseless, al on the Waters” She was so ill that her life was feared for She only fully recovered the use of her senses the following day Then she began to weep The disappearance of Susan was explained to the servants as due to her being suddenly sent back to the convent And Monsieur Walter replied to a long letter of Du Roy by granting hihter's hand
Pretty-boy had posted this letter at theParis, for he had prepared it in advance the evening of his departure He said in it, in respectful terirl; that there had never been any agree her come freely to him to say, ”I wish to be your wife,” he considered hi her, until he had obtained an answer froht than the wish of his betrothed He demanded that Monsieur Walter should reply, ”post restante,” a friend being charged to forward the letter to hiht back Susan to Paris, and sent her on to her parents, abstaining hi for some little time
They had spent six days on the banks of the Seine at La Roche-Guyon
The young girl had never enjoyed herself so much She had played at pastoral life As he passed her off as his sister, they lived in a free and chaste intiht it a clever stroke to respect her On the day after their arrival she had purchased soirl's clothes, and set to work fishi+ng, with a huge straw hat, ornaht the country there delightful There was an old tower and an old chateau, in which beautiful tapestry was shown
George, dressed in a boating jersey, bought ready- the banks of the river, now in a boat They kissed at every moment, she in all innocence, and he ready to succumb to temptation But he was able to restrain hio back to Paris to-ranted me your hand,” sheyour wife here”