And he went away gesticulating, and talking to himself
under the tall trees, into the empty, cool air, which
was full of the smell of the sap. He did not
turn round to look at them, but went straight on, walking
under the stimulus of his rage, under a storm of passion,
with that one fixed idea in his mind, and presently
he found himself outside the station. A train
was about to start and he got in. During the journey,
his anger calmed down, he regained his senses and returned
to Paris, astonished at his own boldness, and feeling
as aching and knocked up, as if he had broken some
bones, but nevertheless he went to have a bock
at his brewery.
When she saw him come in, Mademoiselle Zoe was surprised
and said: “What! back already? are you
tired?” “I am tired ... very tired....
You know, when one is not used to going out....
But I have done with it. I shall not go into
the country again. I had better have stopped here.
For the future, I shall not stir out again.”
But she could not persuade him to tell her about his
little excursion, although she wanted very much to
hear all about it, and for the first time in his life
he got thoroughly drunk that night, and had to be
carried home.
As he lived at Batignolles and was a clerk in the
Public Education Office, he took the omnibus every
morning, when he went to the center of Paris, sitting
opposite a girl with whom he fell in love.
She went to the shop where she was employed, at the
same time every day. She was a little brunette,
one of those dark girls whose eyes are so dark that
they look like spots, and whose complexion has a look
like ivory. He always saw her coming at the corner
of the same street, and she generally had to run to
catch the heavy vehicle, and sprang upon the steps
before the horses had quite stopped. Then she
got inside, rather out of breath, and sitting down,
she looked round her.
The first time that he saw her, Francois Tessier felt
that her face pleased him extremely. One sometimes
meets one of those women whom one longs to clasp madly
in one’s arms immediately, without even knowing
her. That girl answered to his inward desires,
to his secret hopes, to that sort of ideal of love
which one cherishes in the depths of the heart, without
knowing it.
He looked at her intently, in spite of himself, and
she grew embarrassed at his looks and blushed.
He saw it and tried to turn away his eyes; but he
involuntarily fixed them upon her again every moment,
although he tried to look in another direction, and
in a few days they knew each other without having
spoken. He gave up his place to her when the
omnibus was full, and got outside, though he was very
sorry to do it. By this time, she had got so
far as to greet him with a little smile; and although
she always dropped her eyes under his looks, which
she felt were too ardent, yet she did not appear offended
at being looked at in such a manner.
