"Oh, yes I am.I have loved you for a long time."She continually kept trying to separate herself from him, trying to release the arm crushed between their bodies.They walked with difficulty, trammeled by this bond and by these movements, and went zigzagging along like drunken folk.
He knew not what to say to her, feeling that he could not talk to a young girl as he would to a woman.He was perplexed, thinking what he ought to do, wondering if she consented or did not understand, and curbing his spirit to find just the right, tender, and decisive words.He kept saying every second:
"Yvette! Speak! Yvette!"
Then, suddenly, risking all, he kissed her on the cheek.She gave a little start aside, and said with a vexed air:
"Oh! you are absurd.Are you going to let me alone?"The tone of her voice did not at all reveal her thoughts nor her wishes; and, not seeing her too angry, he applied his lips to the beginning of her neck, just beneath the golden hair, that charming spot which he had so often coveted.
Then she made great efforts to free herself.But he held her strongly, and placing his other hand on her shoulder, he compelled her to turn her head toward him and gave her a fond, passionate kiss, squarely on the mouth.
She slipped from his arms by a quick undulation of the body, and, free from his grasp, she disappeared into the darkness with a great swishing of skirts, like the whir of a bird as it flies away.
He stood motionless a moment, surprised by her suppleness and her disappearance, then hearing nothing, he called gently: "Yvette!"She did not reply.He began to walk forward, peering through the shadows, looking in the underbrush for the white spot her dress should make.All was dark.He cried out more loudly:
"Mam'zelle Yvette! Mam'zelle Yvette!"
Nothing stirred.He stopped and listened.The whole island was still; there was scarcely a rustle of leaves over his head.The frogs alone continued their deep croakings on the shores.Then he wandered from thicket to thicket, going where the banks were steep and bushy and returning to places where they were flat and bare as a dead man's arm.He proceeded until he was opposite Bougival and reached the establishment of La Grenouillere, groping the clumps of trees, calling out continually:
"Mam'zelle Yvette, where are you? Answer.It is ridiculous! Come, answer! Don't keep me hunting like this."A distant clock began to strike.He counted the hours: twelve.He had been searching through the island for two hours.Then he thought that perhaps she had gone home; and he went back very anxiously, this time by way of the bridge.A servant dozing on a chair was waiting in the hall.
Servigny awakened him and asked: "Is it long since Mademoiselle Yvette came home? I left her at the foot of the place because I had a call to make."And the valet replied: "Oh! yes, Monsieur, Mademoiselle came in before ten o'clock."He proceeded to his room and went to bed.But he could not close his eyes.That stolen kiss had stirred him to the soul.He kept wondering what she thought and what she knew.How pretty and attractive she was!
His desires, somewhat wearied by the life he led, by all his procession of sweethearts, by all his explorations in the kingdom of love, awoke before this singular child, so fresh, irritating, and inexplicable.He heard one o'clock strike, then two.He could not sleep at all.He was warm, he felt his heart beat and his temples throb, and he rose to open the window.A breath of fresh air came in, which he inhaled deeply.The thick darkness was silent, black, motionless.But suddenly he perceived before him, in the shadows of the garden, a shining point; it seemed a little red coal.
"Well, a cigar!" he said to himself."It must be Saval," and he called softly: "Leon!""Is it you, Jean?"
"Yes.Wait.I'll come down." He dressed, went out, and rejoining his friend who was smoking astride an iron chair, inquired: "What are you doing here at this hour?""I am resting," Saval replied.And he began to laugh.Servigny pressed his hand: "My compliments, my dear fellow.And as for me, I--am making a fool of myself."
"You mean--"
"I mean that--Yvette and her mother do not resemble each other.""What has happened? Tell me."
Servigny recounted his attempts and their failure.Then he resumed:
"Decidedly, that little girl worries me.Fancy my not being able to sleep! What a queer thing a girl is! She appears to be as simple as anything, and yet you know nothing about her.A woman who has lived and loved, who knows life, can be quickly understood.But when it comes to a young virgin, on the contrary, no one can guess anything about her.At heart I begin to think that she is making sport of me."Saval tilted his chair.He said, very slowly: "Take care, my dear fellow, she will lead you to marriage.Remember those other illustrious examples.It was just by this same process that Mademoiselle de Montijo, who was at least of good family, became empress.Don't play Napoleon."Servigny murmured: "As for that, fear nothing.I am neither a simpleton nor an emperor.A man must be either one or the other to make such a move as that.But tell me, are you sleepy?""Not a bit."
"Will you take a walk along the river?"
"Gladly."
