gain _enceinte_, the man whom
she was about to make a father once more said to her: "Well, women like
you are amusing creatures! always full or just empty!" She conceived the
ideas, the suspicions that come to genuine love when it is betrayed, the
presentiments of the heart that tell women they are no longer in
undisputed possession of their lovers, and that there is another because
there is likely to be another.

She complained no more, she wept no more, she indulged no more in
recrimination. She abandoned the struggle with this man, armed with
indifference, who, with the cold-blooded sarcasm of the vulgar cad, was
so expert in insulting her passion, her unreasoning impulses, her wild
outbursts of affection. And so, in agonizing resignation, she set
herself the task of waiting--for what? She did not know: perhaps until
he would have no more of her.

Heart-broken and silent, she kept watch upon Jupillon; she followed him
about and never lost sight of him; she tried to make him speak by
interjecting remarks in his fits of distraction. She hovered about him,
but she saw nothing wrong, she could lay hold of nothing, detect
nothing; and yet she was convinced that there was something and that
what she feared was true; she felt a woman's presence in the air.

One morning, as she went down the street rather earlier than usual, she
spied him a few yards before her on the sidewalk. He was dressed up, and
constantly looked himself over as he walked along. From time to time he
raised his trouser leg a little to see the polish on his boots. She
followed him. He went straight on without looking back. She was not far
behind him when he reached Place Breda. There was a woman walking on the
square beside the cabstand. Germinie could see nothing of her but her
back. Jupillon went up to her and she turned: it was his cousin. They
began to walk side by side, up and down the square; then they started
through Rue Breda toward Rue de Navarin. There the girl took Jupillon's
arm; she did not lean on it at first, but little by little, as they
proceeded, she leaned toward him, with the movement of a branch when it
is bent, and drew closer and closer. They walked slowly, so slowly that
at times Germinie was obliged to stop in order to keep at a safe
distance from them. They ascended Rue des Martyrs, passed through Rue de
la Tour d'Auvergne, and went down Rue Montholon. Jupillon was talking
earnestly; the cousin said nothing, but listened to Jup