Soon Maria inspired a new fear within him.  Maurice and his mother had been already three months in Italy, and excepting two letters that he had received from Milan, at the beginning of his journey, in the first flush of his enthusiasm, Amedee had had no news from his friend.  He excused this negligence on the part of the lazy Maurice, who had smilingly told him, on the eve of departure, not to count upon hearing from him regularly.  At each visit that Amedee paid the Gerards, Maria always asked him: 

“Have you received any news from your friend Maurice?”

At first he had paid no attention to this, but her persistency at length astonished him, planting a little germ of suspicion and alarm in his heart.  Maurice Roger had only paid the Gerards a few visits during the father’s lifetime, and accompanied on each occasion by Amedee.  He had always observed the most respectful manner toward Maria, and they had perhaps exchanged twenty words.  Why should Maria preserve such a particular remembrance of a person so nearly a stranger to her?  Was it possible that he had made a deep impression, perhaps even inspired a sentiment of love?  Did she conceal in the depths of her heart, when she thought of him, a tender hope?  Was she watching for him?  Did she wish him to return?

When these fears crossed Amedee’s mind, he felt a choking sensation, and his heart was troubled.  Happy Maurice, who had only to be seen to please!  But immediately, with a blush of shame, the generous poet chased away this jealous fancy.  But every Sunday, when Maria, lowering her eyes, and with a slightly embarrassed voice, repeated her question, “Have you received any news from Monsieur Maurice?” Amedee felt a cruelly discouraged feeling, and thought, with deep sadness: 

“She never will love me!”

To conquer this new grief, he plunged still more deeply into work; but he did not find his former animation and energy.  After the drizzling rain of the last days of March, the spring arrived.  Now, when Amedee awoke, it was broad daylight at six o’clock in the morning.  Opening his mansard window, he admired, above the tops of the roofs, the large, ruddy sun rising in the soft gray sky, and from the convent gardens beneath came a fresh odor of grass and damp earth.  Under the shade of the arched lindens which led to the shrine of a plaster Virgin, a first and almost imperceptible rustle, a presentiment of verdure, so to speak, ran through the branches, and the three almond trees in the kitchen-garden put forth their delicate flowers.  The young poet was invaded by a sweet and overwhelming languor, and Maria’s face, which was commonly before his inner vision upon awakening, became confused and passed from his mind.  He seated himself for a moment before a table and reread the last lines of a page that he had begun; but he was immediately overcome by physical lassitude, and abandoned himself to thought, saying to himself that he was twenty years old, and that it would be very good, after all, to enjoy life.