ng it in the hall. Wait for me; I want to speak to Martine."

Once downstairs, he hurried to the abandoned room and locked himself
into it, trembling lest she should become uneasy and come down here
to seek him. He looked wild and haggard, as if he had just committed
a crime. He spoke aloud, and he trembled as he gave utterance for the
first time to the cry that he had always loved her madly, passionately.
Yes, ever since she had grown into womanhood he had adored her. And
he saw her clearly before him, as if a curtain had been suddenly torn
aside, as she was when, from an awkward girl, she became a charming and
lovely creature, with her long tapering limbs, her strong slender body,
with its round throat, round neck, and round and supple arms. And it was
monstrous, but it was true--he hungered for all this with a devouring
hunger, for this youth, this fresh, blooming, fragrant flesh.

Then Pascal, dropping into a rickety chair, hid his face in his hands,
as if to shut out the light of day, and burst into great sobs. Good God!
what was to become of him? A girl whom his brother had confided to
him, whom he had brought up like a good father, and who was now--this
temptress of twenty-five--a woman in her supreme omnipotence! He felt
himself more defenseless, weaker than a child.

And above this physical desire, he loved her also with an immense
tenderness, enamored of her moral and intellectual being, of her
right-mindedness, of her fine intelligence, so fearless and so clear.
Even their discord, the disquietude about spiritual things by which she
was tortured, made her only all the more precious to him, as if she
were a being different from himself, in whom he found a little of the
infinity of things. She pleased him in her rebellions, when she held her
ground against him,--she was his companion and pupil; he saw her such
as he had made her, with her great heart, her passionate frankness,
her triumphant reason. And she was always present with him; he did
not believe that he could exist where she was not; he had need of her
breath; of the flutter of her skirts near him; of her thoughtfulness and
affection, by which he felt himself constantly surrounded; of her looks;
of her smile; of her whole daily woman's life, which she had given him,
which she would not have the cruelty to take back from him again. At the
thought that she was going away, that she would not be always here, it
seemed to him as if the heavens were about t