ittle, and looking out of the window as he talked. "How is it, Rose,"
he said, "that you have never thought of settling in life?" She grew as
pale as death, and seeing that she gave him no answer, he went on: "You
are a good, steady, active and economical girl, and a wife like you
would make a man's fortune."

She did not move, but looked frightened; she did not even try to
comprehend his meaning, for her thoughts were in a whirl, as if at the
approach of some great danger; so after waiting for a few seconds, he
went on: "You see, a farm without a mistress can never succeed, even
with a servant like you are." Then he stopped, for he did not know what
else to say, and Rose looked at him with the air of a person who thinks
that he is face to face with a murderer, and ready to flee at the
slightest movement he may make; but after waiting for about five
minutes, he asked her: "Well, will it suit you?" "Will what suit me,
master?" And he said, quickly: "Why, to marry me, by Jove!"

She jumped up, but fell back onto her chair as if she had been struck,
and there she remained motionless, like a person who is overwhelmed by
some great misfortune, but at last the farmer grew impatient, and said:
"Come, what more do you want?" She looked at him almost in terror; then
suddenly the tears came into her eyes, and she said twice, in a choking
voice: "I cannot, I cannot!" "Why not?" he asked. "Come, don't be silly;
I will give you until to-morrow to think it over."

And he hurried out of the room, very glad to have got the matter, which
had troubled him a good deal, over; for he had no doubt that she would
the next morning accept a proposal which she could never have expected,
and which would be a capital bargain for him, as he thus bound a woman
to himself who would certainly bring him more than if she had the best
dowry in the district.

Neither could there be any scruples about an unequal match between them,
for in the country everyone is very nearly equal; the farmer works just
like his laborers do, who frequently become masters in their turn, and
the female servants constantly become the mistresses of the
establishments, without its making any change in their lives or habits.

Rose did not go to bed that night. She threw herself, dressed as she
was, onto her bed, and she had not even the strength to cry left in her,
she was so thoroughly dumbfounded. She remained quite inert, scarcely
knowing that she had a body, and without b