At last, one morning he resolved to go over to the military division and sign his engagement.  But he was not willing to consummate this sacrifice without seeing Reine Vincart for the last time.  He was nursing, down in the bottom of his heart, a vague hope, which, frail and slender as the filament of a plant, was yet strong enough to keep him on his native soil.  Instead of taking the path to Vivey, he made a turn in the direction of La Thuiliere, and soon reached the open elevation whence the roofs of the farm-buildings and the turrets of the chateau could both alike be seen.  There he faltered, with a piteous sinking of the heart.  Only a few steps between himself and the house, yet he hesitated about entering; not that he feared a want of welcome, but because he dreaded lest the reawakening of his tenderness should cause him to lose a portion of the courage he should need to enable him to leave.  He leaned against the trunk of an old pear-tree and surveyed the forest site on which the farm was built.

The landscape retained its usual placidity.  In the distance, over the waste lands, the shepherd Tringuesse was following his flock of sheep, which occasionally scattered over the fields, and then, under the dog’s harassing watchfulness, reformed in a compact group, previous to descending the narrow hill-slope.  One thing struck Claudet:  the pastures and the woods bore exactly the same aspect, presented the same play of light and shade as on that afternoon of the preceding year, when he had met Reine in the Ronces woods, a few days before the arrival of Julien.  The same bright yet tender tint reddened the crab-apple and the wild-cherry; the tomtits and the robins chirped as before, among the bushes, and, as in the previous year, one heard the sound of the beechnuts and acorns dropping on the rocky paths.  Autumn went through her tranquil rites and familiar operations, always with the same punctual regularity; and all this would go on just the same when Claudet was no longer there.  There would only be one lad the less in the village streets, one hunter failing to answer the call when they were surrounding the woods of Charbonniere.  This dim perception of how small a space man occupies on the earth, and of the ease with which he is forgotten, aided Claudet unconsciously in his effort to be resigned, and he determined to enter the house.  As he opened the gate of the courtyard, he found himself face to face with Reine, who was coming out.

The young girl immediately supposed he had come to make a last assault, in the hope of inducing her to yield to his wishes.  She feared a renewal of the painful scene which had closed their last interview, and her first impulse was to put herself on her guard.  Her countenance darkened, and she fixed a cold, questioning gaze upon Claudet, as if to keep him at a distance.  But, when she noted the sadness of her young relative’s expression, she was seized with pity.  Making an effort, however, to disguise her emotion, she pretended to accost him with the calm and cordial friendship of former times.