e, it must be believed that no man
had touched her heart, or her conduct would be inexcusable. She was
young; the time when men and women feel that they cannot afford to lose
time or to quibble over their joys was still far off. She, no doubt, was
on the verge not of first love, but of her first experience of the bliss
of love. And from inexperience, for want of the painful lessons which
would have taught her to value the treasure poured out at her feet, she
was playing with it. Knowing nothing of the glory and rapture of the
light, she was fain to stay in the shadow.

Armand was just beginning to understand this strange situation; he put
his hope in the first word spoken by nature. Every evening, as he came
away from Mme de Langeais', he told himself that no woman would accept
the tenderest, most delicate proofs of a man's love during seven months,
nor yield passively to the slighter demands of passion, only to cheat
love at the last. He was waiting patiently for the sun to gain power,
not doubting but that he should receive the earliest fruits. The married
woman's hesitations and the religious scruples he could quite well
understand. He even rejoiced over those battles. He mistook the
Duchess's heartless coquetry for modesty; and he would not have had her
otherwise. So he had loved to see her devising obstacles; was he not
gradually triumphing over them? Did not every victory won swell the
meagre sum of lovers' intimacies long denied, and at last conceded with
every sign of love? Still, he had had such leisure to taste the full
sweetness of every small successive conquest on which a lover feeds
his love, that these had come to be matters of use and wont. So far as
obstacles went, there were none now save his own awe of her; nothing
else left between him and his desire save the whims of her who allowed
him to call her Antoinette. So he made up his mind to demand more, to
demand all. Embarrassed like a young lover who cannot dare to believe
that his idol can stoop so low, he hesitated for a long time. He passed
through the experience of terrible reactions within himself. A set
purpose was annihilated by a word, and definite resolves died within him
on the threshold. He despised himself for his weakness, and still his
desire remained unuttered. Nevertheless, one evening, after sitting
in gloomy melancholy, he brought out a fierce demand for his illegally
legitimate rights. The Duchess had not to wait for her bond-slave's