1
a broad avenue of beeches stretches in front of our garden; and at the far end is the open country. here we have placed a seat which looks out over space. nothing but fields and fields, as far as the eye can reach; nothing but land and sky. we love the security of this elemental landscape, where the alternations of light succeed one another inexorably. the noontides are fierce and dazzling. the soft, opalescent mornings are fragrant with love and pleasure. but, most of all, the sunsets attract us by their unwearied variety, sometimes sober and tender, ever fainter and more ethereal, sometimes blood-red, monstrous and barbaric.
the one which i watched to-day was pale and grey; and the obedient earth humbly espoused its gentle tones. with my hands clasped in my lap, it seemed to me that i was drinking in the peace that filled my heart; and my eyes, which unconsciously
fastened on my hands, held for a moment my whole life enclosed there.
then i heard indistinctly steps approaching me. a woman sat down on the bench. the corner of her apron had brushed against my knees; i raised my head and saw the young girl sitting by my side.
she said, simply:
"here i am."
and at this short speech my mind is in a tumult; thoughts rush wildly through my brain without my being able to follow one of them. i press her hands, i look at her, i laugh, while little cries of delight burst from my lips:
"you are here at last! i was expecting you! do you know that you are very pretty ... and that you look sweet and kind?... make haste and tell me all about yourself...."
but she does not answer. she stares at me with wide-open eyes; and my impulsive phrases strike with such force against her stupefaction that each one of them seems by degrees to fall back upon myself. i in my turn am left utterly dumfounded; she is so ill at ease that i myself become nervous; her astonishment embarrasses me; i secretly laugh at my own discomfiture; and i end by asking, feebly:
"what's your name?"
"rose."
"rose ... roseline.... my name is...."
and i burst out laughing. we were really talking like two children trying to make friends. i threw my arm round her waist and put my lips to her cheek. i loved its milky perfume. my kiss left a little white mark which the blood soon flushed again.
she told me that she had seen me from a distance and that she had come running up without stopping. i was careful not to ask her what she wanted to tell me, for i knew that she had obeyed my wishes rather than her own; and i led her towards the house:
"rose, my dear rose.... i know that you are unhappy."
she stops, gives me a quick look and then turns red and lowers her eyes. thereupon, so as not to startle her, i ask her about her work and about the farm.
rose answers shily, in short sentences, and we walk about in the garden. from time to time, she stops to pull up a weed; methodically, she breaks off the flowers hanging faded from their stalks; occasionally, she makes a reference, full of sound sense, to the care required by plants and vegetables. but my
will passes like an obliterating line over all that we say, over all that we do; and, while rose anxiously tries to fill the silence, i lie in wait, ready for a word, a sigh, a look that will enable me to go straight to the heart of that soul, which i am eager to grasp even as we take in our hand a mysterious object of which we are trying to discover the secret.
alas, the darkness between us is too dense and there is only the light of her beautiful eyes, those sad, submissive eyes, to guide my pity! our conversation is somewhat laboured; the girl evades any direct question; and any opinion which i venture to form can be only of the vaguest.
she seems to me to be lacking in spirit, of a nervous and despondent temperament, but not unintelligent. i know nothing of her mental powers. we sometimes see an active intelligence directing very inferior abilities, just as our good friend the dog is an excellent shepherd to his silly, docile flock. in her, the most ordinary ideas are so logically dovetailed that one is tempted to accept them even when one hesitates to approve them. her mind must be free from baseness, for throughout our conversation she made no effort to please me. would it not have
needed a very quick discernment, a very uncommon shrewdness to know so soon that she would please me better like that?
that was what i said to myself by way of encouragement, so great was my haste to pour into her ears those instinctive words of hope and independence which it was natural to utter. and, let them be premature or tardy, barren or fruitful, i could not refrain from speaking them....
but suddenly she released herself: it was already past the time for milking the cows; they must be waiting for her. nevertheless, she gave a shrug of the shoulders which implied that she cared little whether she was late or not; and, with a "good-bye till to-morrow!" she went off heavily, making the ground ring with the steady tramp of her wooden shoes.
for an instant i stood motionless in the orchard. her shrill voice still sounded in my ears; and the constraint of her attitude oppressed me. the road by which she had just gone was now hardly visible. a fog rose from the sea and gradually blotted out everything. the plains, the hills, the cottages vanished one by one; and already, around me, veils of
mist clung to the branches of the apple-trees. at regular intervals, the boom of the fog-horn startled the silence.
2
those who pass through our life and who will simply play a part there take shape in successive images. the first, a fair but illusive picture, fades away as another sadly obtrudes itself; and another, paler yet, comes in its turn; and thus they all vanish, becoming less and less distinct until the end, until the day when a last, vague outline is fixed in our memory.
how different is the process in the case of those who are to remain in our existence and blend with it for all time! it is then as though the living reality at the very outset shattered the image formed by our admiration and triumphantly took its place. in point of fact, it vivifies it and, later, heightens it, colours it, ever enriching it with all the benefits which the daily round brings to healthy minds. those beings will always remain with us, whatever happens; they will be more present in their absence than things which are actually present; and the taste,
the colour, the very life itself of our life will never reach us except through them.
i thought of all this vaguely. there were two women before me: one, coarse and awkward, was obliterating the other, so beautiful amid the ripe corn. alas, should i ever see that other again? was she not one of those images which fade out of our remembrance, becoming ever paler and more shadowy?
i felt a little discouraged. but perhaps the sadness of the hour was influencing me? my feminine nerves must be affected by this damp, warm mist. i went back to the house, doing my utmost simply to think that i was about to undertake a "rather difficult" task.
under the lamp, which the outside pall had caused to be lit earlier than usual, and in the brightness of the red-and-white dining-room, decked with gorgeous flowers, i discovered another side to my interview. while i was describing it laughingly, my disappointment had seemed natural; and, my eagerness being now reinforced by pity, a new fervour inspired my curiosity.
in sensitive and therefore anxious natures, the very excess of the sensation makes the impression
received subject to violent reaction. it goes up and down, down and up; and not until it slackens a little can reason intervene and bring it to its normal level.
