"Ah! That is the first time you have told me."

"There must be nothing hidden from us now. You see, I have not much faith in marriage left. Mine, I know, was not a very good example. But I have thought and looked about me. Happy marriages are very rare. It is a little against nature. You cannot bind together the wills of two people without mutilating one of them, if not both, and it does not even bring the suffering through which it is well and profitable for the soul to pa.s.s."

"Ah!" he said. "But I can see in it a fine thing--the union of two sacrifices, two souls merged into one."

"A fine thing, in your dreams. In reality you would suffer more than any one."

"What! You think I could never have a wife, a family, children?... Don"t say that! I should love them so! You think it impossible for me to have that happiness?"

"I don"t know. I don"t think so. Perhaps with a good woman, not very intelligent, not very beautiful, who would be devoted to you, and would not understand you."

"How unkind of you!... But you are wrong to make fun of it. A good woman is a fine thing, even if she has no mind."

"I agree. Shall I find you one?"

"Please! No. You are hurting me. How can you talk like that?"

"What have I said?"

"You don"t love me at all, not at all. You can"t if you can think of my marrying another woman."

"On the contrary, it is because I love you that I should be happy to do anything which could make you happy."

"Then, if that is true...."

"No, no. Don"t go back to that. I tell you, it would make you miserable."

"Don"t worry about me. I swear to you that I shall be happy! Speak the truth: do you think that you would be unhappy with me?"

"Oh! Unhappy? No, my dear. I respect and admire you too much ever to be unhappy with you.... But, I will tell you: I don"t think anything could make me very unhappy now. I have seen too much. I have become philosophical.... But, frankly--(You want me to? You won"t be angry?)--well. I know my own weakness. I should, perhaps, be foolish enough, after a few months, not to be perfectly happy with you; and I will not have that, just because my affection for you is the most holy thing in the world, and I will not have it tarnished."

Sadly, he said:

"Yes, you say that, to sweeten the pill. You don"t like me. There are things in me which are odious to you."

"No, no. I a.s.sure you. Don"t look so hang-dog. You are the dearest, kindest man...."

"Then I don"t understand. Why couldn"t we agree?"

"Because we are too different--both too decided, too individual."

"That is why I love you."

"I too. But that is why we should find ourselves conflicting."

"No." "Yes. Or, rather, as I know that you are bigger than I, I should reproach myself with embarra.s.sing you with my smaller personality, and then I should be stifled. I should say nothing, and I should suffer."

Tears came to Christophe"s eyes.

"Oh! I won"t have that. Never! I would rather be utterly miserable than have you suffering through my fault, for my sake."

"My dear, you mustn"t feel it like that.... You know, I say all that, but I may be flattering myself.... Perhaps I should not be so good as to sacrifice myself for you."

"All the better."

"But, then, I should sacrifice you, and that would be misery for me....

You see, there is no solving the difficulty either way. Let us stay as we are. Could there be anything better than our friendship?"

He nodded his head and smiled a little bitterly.

"Yes. That is all very well. But at bottom you don"t love me enough."

She smiled too, gently, with a little melancholy, and said, with a sigh:

"Perhaps. You are right. I am no longer young. I am tired. Life wears one out unless one is very strong, like you.... Oh! you, there are times when I look at you and you seem to be a boy of eighteen."

"Alas! With my old face, my wrinkles, my dull skin!"

"I know that you have suffered as much as I--perhaps more. I can see that. But sometimes you look at me with the eyes of a boy, and I feel you giving out a fresh stream of life. I am worn out. When I think of my old eagerness, then--alas! As one said, "Those were great days. I was very unhappy!" I hold to life only by a thread. I should never be bold enough to try marriage again. Ah! Then! Then!... If you had only given a sign!..."

"Well, then, well, tell me...."

"No. It is not worth the trouble."

"Then, if in the old days, if I had...."

"Yes. If you had...? I said nothing."

"I understood. You are cruel."

"Take it, then, that in the old days I was a fool."

"You are making it worse and worse."

"Poor Christophe! I can"t say a word but it hurts you. I shan"t say any more."

"You must.... Tell me.... Tell me something."

"Something?"

"Something kind."

She laughed.

"Don"t laugh."

"Then you must not be sad."