Can it be Mercanson? He may have
spoken of my conversation with him, and, seeing that I was jealous of
Dalens, may have guessed the rest. Assuredly he is the snake who has
been hissing about my well-beloved flower. I must punish him, and I
must repair the wrong I have done Brigitte. Fool that I am! I think of
leaving her, when I ought to consecrate my life to her, to the expiation
of my sins, to rendering her happy after the tears I have drawn from her
eyes-when I am her only support in the world, her only friend, her
only protector! when I ought to follow her to the end of the world, to
shelter her with my body, to console her for having loved me, for having
given herself to me!

"Brigitte!" I cried, returning to her room, "wait an hour for me, and I
will return."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Wait for me," I replied, "do not set out without me. Remember the words
of Ruth: 'Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will
lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou
diest, will I die, and there will I be buried."'

I left her precipitately, and rushed out to find Mercanson. I was told
that he had gone out, and I entered his house to wait for him.

I sat in the corner of the room on a priest's chair before a dirty black
table. I was becoming impatient when I recalled my duel on account of my
first mistress.

"I received a wound from a bullet and am still a fool," I said to
myself. "What have I come to do here? This priest will not fight; if I
seek a quarrel with him, he will say that his priestly robes forbid, and
he will continue his vile gossip when I have gone. Moreover, for what
can I hold him responsible? What is it that has disturbed Brigitte? They
say that her reputation has been sullied, that I ill-treat her, and that
she ought not to submit to it. What stupidity! That concerns no one;
there is nothing to do but allow them to talk; in such a case, to notice
an insult is to give it importance.

"Is it possible to prevent provincials from talking about their
neighbors? Can any one prevent a gossip from maligning a woman who
loves? What measures can be taken to stop a public rumor? If they say
that I ill-treat her, it is for me--to prove the contrary by my conduct
with her, and not by violence. It would be as ridiculous to seek a
quarrel with Mercanson as to leave the country on account of gossip. No,
we must not leave the country; that would be a bad move; that