ears, which became almost violet, and without
answering a word she fled toward the shore, swimming with all her
strength with hasty strokes. He could not keep up with her and
panted with fatigue as he followed. He saw her leave the water, pick
up her cloak, and go to her dressing-room without looking back.

It took him a long time to dress, very much perplexed as to what he
ought to do, puzzled over what he should say to her, and wondering
whether he ought to excuse himself or persevere. When he was ready,
she had gone away all alone. He went back slowly, anxious and
disturbed.

The Marquise was strolling, on Saval's arm, in the circular path
around the lawn. As she observed Servigny, she said, with that
careless air which she had maintained since the night before.

"I told you not to go out in such hot weather. And now Yvette has
come back almost with a sun stroke. She has gone to lie down. She
was as red as a poppy, the poor child, and she has a frightful
headache. You must have been walking in the full sunlight, or you
must have done something foolish. You are as unreasonable as she."

The young girl did not come down to dinner. When they wanted to send
her up something to eat she called through the door that she was not
hungry, for she had shut herself in, and she begged that they would
leave her undisturbed. The two young men left by the ten o'clock
train, promising to return the following Thursday, and the Marquise
seated herself at the open window to dream, hearing in the distance
the orchestra of the boatmen's ball, with its sprightly music, in
the deep and solemn silence of the night.

Swayed by love as a person is moved by a fondness for horses or
boating, she was subject to sudden tendernesses which crept over her
like a disease. These passions took possession of her suddenly,
penetrated her entire being, maddened her, enervated or overwhelmed
her, in measure as they were of an exalted, violent, dramatic, or
sentimental character.

She was one of those women who are created to love and to be loved.
Starting from a very low station in life, she had risen in her
adventurous career, acting instinctively, with inborn cleverness,
accepting money and kisses, naturally, without distinguishing
between them, employing her extraordinary ability in an unthinking
and simple fashion. From all her experiences she had never known
either a genuine tenderness or a great repulsion.

She had had various friends, for s