‘That part of the country won’t see much of us in future,’ said Claude, as they returned to Bennecourt.  ’Those monsters spoil the landscape.’

Towards the end of the summer, an important event changed the current of their lives.  Christine was enceinte.  At first, both she and Claude felt amazed and worried.  Now for the first time they seemed to dread some terrible complications in their life.  Later on, however, they gradually grew accustomed to the thought of what lay before them and made all necessary preparations.  But the winter proved a terribly inclement one, and Christine was compelled to remain indoors, whilst Claude went walking all alone over the frost-bound, clanking roads.  And he, finding himself in solitude during these walks, after months of constant companionship, wondered at the way his life had turned, against his own will, as it were.  He had never wished for home life even with her; had he been consulted, he would have expressed his horror of it; it had come about, however, and could not be undone, for—­without mentioning the child—­he was one of those who lack the courage to break off.  This fate had evidently been in store for him, he felt; he had been destined to succumb to the first woman who did not feel ashamed of him.  The hard ground resounded beneath his wooden-soled shoes, and the blast froze the current of his reverie, which lingered on vague thoughts, on his luck of having, at any rate, met with a good and honest girl, on how cruelly he would have suffered had it been otherwise.  And then his love came back to him; he hurried home to take Christine in his trembling arms as if he had been in danger of losing her.

The child, a boy, was born about the middle of February, and at once began to revolutionise the home, for Christine, who had shown herself such an active housewife, proved to be a very awkward nurse.  She failed to become motherly, despite her kind heart and her distress at the sight of the slightest pimple.  She soon grew weary, gave in, and called for Melie, who only made matters worse by her gaping stupidity.  The father had to come to the rescue, and proved still more awkward than the two women.  The discomfort which needlework had caused Christine of old, her want of aptitude as regards the usual occupations of her sex, revived amid the cares that the baby required.  The child was ill-kept, and grew up anyhow in the garden, or in the large rooms left untidy in sheer despair, amidst broken toys, uncleanliness and destruction.  And when matters became too bad altogether, Christine could only throw herself upon the neck of the man she loved.  She was pre-eminently an amorosa and would have sacrificed her son for his father twenty times over.