kidney
into his best soldiers! What humbug! As though there were any way of
taming those beggars, short of discipline! A pack of good-for-nothing
scoundrels, who would fly across the frontier the moment the first shot
was fired!"

Philippe had instinctively slackened his pace. Suzanne was walking
beside him; and, every now and then, by the light of an electric lamp,
he saw the golden halo of her hair and the delicate profile draped in
the silk scarf.

He felt full of gentleness for her, now that he no longer feared her,
and he was tempted to speak kind words to her, as to a little sister of
whom one is very fond. But the silence was sweeter still and he did not
wish to break its charm.

They passed the last houses. The street ran into a white country-road,
lined with tall poplars. And they heard scraps of Morestal's
conversation:

"Oh, yes! Captain Daspry! Leniency, friendly relations between superiors
and inferiors, the barracks looked upon as a school of brotherhood, with
the officers for instructors! That's all very well; but do you know what
a system of that sort leads to? An army of deserters and renegades...."

Suzanne said, in a low voice:

"May I have your arm, Philippe?"

He at once slipped his arm through hers, happy at the thought of
pleasing her. And he felt, besides, a great relief at seeing that she
leant against him with the confidence of a friend. They were going to
part and nothing would tarnish the pure memory of that day. It was a
comforting impression, which nevertheless caused him a certain sadness.
Duty fulfilled always leaves a taste of bitterness behind. The
intoxication of sacrifice no longer stimulates you; and you begin to
understand what you have refused.

In the warm night, amid all the perfumes that stirred in the breeze,
Suzanne's own scent was wafted up to him. He inhaled it long and
greedily and reflected that no scent had ever excited him before:

"Good-bye," he said, within himself. "Good-bye, little girl; good-bye to
what was my love."

And, during those last minutes, as though he were granting a crowning
grace to his impossible longings and his forbidden dreams, he yielded to
the delights of that love which had blossomed so mysteriously in the
unknown regions of his soul.

"Good-bye," Suzanne now said. "Good-bye, Philippe."

"Are you going?"

"Yes, or else my father would come back with me; and I want nobody ...
nobody...."

Jorance and old Morestal had stopped ne