Rose was choking, and she grew scarlet, while her tears suddenly stopped and dried up on her cheeks, like drops of water on hot iron, and she exclaimed:  “No, it is not he, it is not he!” “Is that really a fact?” asked the cunning peasant, who partly guessed the truth; and she replied, hastily:  “I will swear it; I will swear it to you—­” She tried to think of something by which to swear, as she did not venture to invoke sacred things, but he interrupted her:  “At any rate, he used to follow you into every corner and devoured you with his eyes at meal times.  Did you ever give him your promise, eh?”

This time she looked her master straight in the face.  “No, never, never; I will solemnly swear to you that if he were to come to-day and ask me to marry him I would have nothing to do with him.”  She spoke with such an air of sincerity that the farmer hesitated, and then he continued, as if speaking to himself:  “What, then?  You have not had a misfortune, as they call it, or it would have been known, and as it has no consequences, no girl would refuse her master on that account.  There must be something at the bottom of it, however.”

She could say nothing; she had not the strength to speak, and he asked her again:  “You will not?” “I cannot, master,” she said, with a sigh, and he turned on his heel.

She thought she had got rid of him altogether and spent the rest of the day almost tranquilly, but was as exhausted as if she had been turning the thrashing machine all day in the place of the old white horse, and she went to bed as soon as she could and fell asleep immediately.  In the middle of the night, however, two hands touching the bed woke her.  She trembled with fear, but immediately recognized the farmer’s voice, when he said to her:  “Don’t be frightened, Rose; I have come to speak to you.”  She was surprised at first, but when he tried to take liberties with her she understood and began to tremble violently, as she felt quite alone in the darkness, still heavy from sleep, and quite unprotected, with that man standing near her.  She certainly did not consent, but she resisted carelessly struggling against that instinct which is always strong in simple natures and very imperfectly protected by the undecided will of inert and gentle races.  She turned her head now to the wall, and now toward the room, in order to avoid the attentions which the farmer tried to press on her, but she was weakened by fatigue, while he became brutal, intoxicated by desire.

They lived together as man and wife, and one morning he said to her:  “I have put up our banns, and we will get married next month.”

She did not reply, for what could she say?  She did not resist, for what could she do?

PART IV

She married him.  She felt as if she were in a pit with inaccessible sides from which she could never get out, and all kinds of misfortunes were hanging over her head, like huge rocks, which would fall on the first occasion.  Her husband gave her the impression of a man whom she had robbed, and who would find it out some day or other.  And then she thought of her child, who was the cause of her misfortunes, but who was also the cause of all her happiness on earth, and whom she went to see twice a year, though she came back more unhappy each time.