But, when he put the glass to his lips, several big tears fell in, and he had to swallow them with his wine.

“Well!” he sighed, turning away while he passed the back of his hand across his eyes, “it must be time to go.”

She accompanied him to the threshold.

“Adieu, Reine!”

“Adieu!” she murmured, faintly.

She stretched out both hands, overcome with pity and remorse.  He perceived her emotion, and thinking that she perhaps still loved him a little, and repented having rejected him, threw his arms impetuously around her.  He pressed her against his bosom, and imprinted kisses, wet with tears, upon her cheek.  He could not leave her, and redoubled his caresses with passionate ardor, with the ecstasy of a lover who suddenly meets with a burst of tenderness on the part of the woman he has tenderly loved, and whom he expects never to fold again in his arms.  He completely lost his self-control.  His embrace became so ardent that Reine, alarmed at the sudden outburst, was overcome with shame and terror, notwithstanding the thought that the man, who was clasping her in his arms with such passion, was her own brother.

She tore herself away from him and pushed him violently back.

“Adieu!” she cried, retreating to the kitchen, of which she hastily shut the door.

Claudet stood one moment, dumfounded, before the door so pitilessly shut in his face, then, falling suddenly from his happy state of illusion to the dead level of reality, departed precipitately down the road.

When he turned to give a parting glance, the farm buildings were no longer visible, and the waste lands of the forest border, gray, stony, and barren, stretched their mute expanse before him.

“No!” exclaimed he, between his set teeth, “she never loved me.  She thinks only of the other man!  I have nothing more to do but go away and never return!”

CHAPTER IX

LOVE HEALS THE BROKEN HEART

In arriving at Langres, Claudet enrolled in the seventeenth battalion of light infantry.  Five days later, paying no attention to the lamentations of Manette, he left Vivey, going, by way of Lyon, to the camp at Lathonay, where his battalion was stationed.  Julien was thus left alone at the chateau to recover as best he might from the dazed feeling caused by the startling events of the last few weeks.  After Claudet’s departure, he felt an uneasy sensation of discomfort, and as if he himself had lessened in value.  He had never before realized how little space he occupied in his own dwelling, and how much living heat Claudet had infused into the house which was now so cold and empty.  He felt poor and diminished in spirit, and was ashamed of being so useless to himself and to others.  He had before him a prospect of new duties, which frightened him.  The management of the district, which Claudet had undertaken for