And he went away gesticulating, and talking to himself under the tall trees, into the empty, cool air, which was full of the smell of the sap.  He did not turn round to look at them, but went straight on, walking under the stimulus of his rage, under a storm of passion, with that one fixed idea in his mind, and presently he found himself outside the station.  A train was about to start and he got in.  During the journey, his anger calmed down, he regained his senses and returned to Paris, astonished at his own boldness, and feeling as aching and knocked up, as if he had broken some bones, but nevertheless he went to have a bock at his brewery.

When she saw him come in, Mademoiselle Zoe was surprised and said:  “What! back already? are you tired?” “I am tired ... very tired....  You know, when one is not used to going out....  But I have done with it.  I shall not go into the country again.  I had better have stopped here.  For the future, I shall not stir out again.”

But she could not persuade him to tell her about his little excursion, although she wanted very much to hear all about it, and for the first time in his life he got thoroughly drunk that night, and had to be carried home.

THE FATHER

I

As he lived at Batignolles and was a clerk in the Public Education Office, he took the omnibus every morning, when he went to the center of Paris, sitting opposite a girl with whom he fell in love.

She went to the shop where she was employed, at the same time every day.  She was a little brunette, one of those dark girls whose eyes are so dark that they look like spots, and whose complexion has a look like ivory.  He always saw her coming at the corner of the same street, and she generally had to run to catch the heavy vehicle, and sprang upon the steps before the horses had quite stopped.  Then she got inside, rather out of breath, and sitting down, she looked round her.

The first time that he saw her, Francois Tessier felt that her face pleased him extremely.  One sometimes meets one of those women whom one longs to clasp madly in one’s arms immediately, without even knowing her.  That girl answered to his inward desires, to his secret hopes, to that sort of ideal of love which one cherishes in the depths of the heart, without knowing it.

He looked at her intently, in spite of himself, and she grew embarrassed at his looks and blushed.  He saw it and tried to turn away his eyes; but he involuntarily fixed them upon her again every moment, although he tried to look in another direction, and in a few days they knew each other without having spoken.  He gave up his place to her when the omnibus was full, and got outside, though he was very sorry to do it.  By this time, she had got so far as to greet him with a little smile; and although she always dropped her eyes under his looks, which she felt were too ardent, yet she did not appear offended at being looked at in such a manner.