"Listen, Muscade, if you really love me enough to marry me, speak to mamma first, and I will answer you afterward."He thought she was still making sport of him, and angrily replied:
"Mam'zelle, you must be taking me for somebody else."She kept looking at him with her soft, clear eyes.She hesitated and then said:
"I don't understand you at all."
Then he answered quickly with somewhat of ill nature in his voice:
"Come now, Yvette, let us cease this absurd comedy, which has already lasted too long.You are playing the part of a simple little girl, and the role does not fit you at all, believe me.You know perfectly well that there can be no question of marriage between us, but merely of love.I have told you that I love you.It is the truth.I repeat, I love you.Don't pretend any longer not to understand me, and don't treat me as if I were a fool."They were face to face, treading water, merely moving their hands a little, to steady themselves.She was still for a moment, as if she could not make out the meaning of his words, then she suddenly blushed up to the roots of her hair.Her whole face grew purple from her neck to her ears, which became almost violet, and without answering a word she fled toward the shore, swimming with all her strength with hasty strokes.He could not keep up with her and panted with fatigue as he followed.He saw her leave the water, pick up her cloak, and go to her dressing-room without looking back.
It took him a long time to dress, very much perplexed as to what he ought to do, puzzled over what he should say to her, and wondering whether he ought to excuse himself or persevere.When he was ready, she had gone away all alone.He went back slowly, anxious and disturbed.
The Marquise was strolling, on Saval's arm, in the circular path around the lawn.As she observed Servigny, she said, with that careless air which she had maintained since the night before.
"I told you not to go out in such hot weather.And now Yvette has come back almost with a sun stroke.She has gone to lie down.She was as red as a poppy, the poor child, and she has a frightful headache.You must have been walking in the full sunlight, or you must have done something foolish.You are as unreasonable as she."The young girl did not come down to dinner.When they wanted to send her up something to eat she called through the door that she was not hungry, for she had shut herself in, and she begged that they would leave her undisturbed.The two young men left by the ten o'clock train, promising to return the following Thursday, and the Marquise seated herself at the open window to dream, hearing in the distance the orchestra of the boatmen's ball, with its sprightly music, in the deep and solemn silence of the night.
Swayed by love as a person is moved by a fondness for horses or boating, she was subject to sudden tendernesses which crept over her like a disease.These passions took possession of her suddenly, penetrated her entire being, maddened her, enervated or overwhelmed her, in measure as they were of an exalted, violent, dramatic, or sentimental character.
She was one of those women who are created to love and to be loved.
Starting from a very low station in life, she had risen in her adventurous career, acting instinctively, with inborn cleverness, accepting money and kisses, naturally, without distinguishing between them, employing her extraordinary ability in an unthinking and simple fashion.From all her experiences she had never known either a genuine tenderness or a great repulsion.
She had had various friends, for she had to live, as in traveling a person eats at many tables.But occasionally her heart took fire, and she really fell in love, which state lasted for some weeks or months, according to conditions.These were the delicious moments of her life, for she loved with all her soul.She cast herself upon love as a person throws himself into the river to drown himself, and let herself be carried away, ready to die, if need be, intoxicated, maddened, infinitely happy.She imagined each time that she never had experienced anything like such an attachment, and she would have been greatly astonished if some one had told her of how many men she had dreamed whole nights through, looking at the stars.
Saval had captivated her, body and soul.She dreamed of him, lulled by his face and his memory, in the calm exaltation of consummated love, of present and certain happiness.
A sound behind her made her turn around.Yvette had just entered, still in her daytime dress, but pale, with eyes glittering, as sometimes is the case after some great fatigue.She leaned on the sill of the open window, facing her mother.
"I want to speak to you," she said.
