t
was necessary to do so. By dint of entreaties he obtained a large sum
one night from her; but when he urged her to give him another sum a
few days later, she showed herself inflexible, and did not give way to
him further, in fact.

He appeared to be satisfied with her decision.

He again became quiet, as he had formerly been, loving to remain
seated for entire hours, without moving, plunged in deep reverie. He
now did not even talk to Madame Source, merely answering her remarks
with short, formal words. Nevertheless, he was agreeable and attentive
in his manner towards her; but he never embraced her now.

She had by this time grown slightly afraid of him when they sat facing
one another at night at opposite sides of the chimney-piece. She
wanted to wake him up, to make him say something, no matter what, that
would break this dreadful silence, which was like the darkness of a
wood. But he did not appear to listen to her, and she shuddered with
the terror of a poor feeble woman when she had spoken to him five or
six times successively without being able to get a word out of him.

What was the matter with him? What was going on in that closed up
head? When she had been thus two or three hours sitting opposite him,
she felt herself getting daft, and longed to rush away and to escape
into the open country in order to avoid that mute, eternal
companionship and also some vague danger, which she could not define,
but of which she had a presentiment.

She frequently shed tears when she was alone. What was the matter with
him? When she gave expression to a desire, he unmurmuringly carried it
into execution. When she wanted to have anything brought to her from
the city, he immediately went there to procure it. She had no
complaint to make of him; no, indeed! And yet....

Another year flitted by, and it seemed to her that a new modification
had taken place in the mind of the young man. She perceived it; she
felt it; she divined it. How? No matter! She was sure she was not
mistaken; but she could not have explained in what the unknown
thoughts of this strange youth had changed.

It seemed to her that till now he had been like a person in a
hesitating frame of mind who had suddenly arrived at a determination.
This idea came to her one evening as she met his glance, a fixed
singular glance which she had not seen in his face before.

Then, he commenced to watch her incessantly and she wished she could
hide herself in order