The young man, quite dismayed, clasped her in his arms again, trying to console her.  “I love you,” he whispered, “I am your brother.  Why say that we have been doing wrong?  We kissed each other because we were cold.  You know very well that we used to kiss each other every evening before separating.”

“Oh! not as we did just now,” she whispered.  “It must be wrong, for a strange feeling came over me.  The men will laugh at me now as I pass, and they will be right in doing so.  I shall not be able to defend myself.”

The young fellow remained silent, unable to find a word to calm the agitation of this big child, trembling at her first kiss of love.  He clasped her gently, imagining that he might calm her by his embrace.  She struggled, however, and continued:  “If you like, we will go away; we will leave the province.  I can never return to Plassans; my uncle would beat me; all the townspeople would point their fingers at me—­” And then, as if seized with sudden irritation, she added:  “But no!  I am cursed!  I forbid you to leave aunt Dide to follow me.  You must leave me on the highway.”

“Miette, Miette!” Silvere implored; “don’t talk like that.”

“Yes.  I want to please you.  Be reasonable.  They have turned me out like a vagabond.  If I went back with you, you would always be fighting for my sake, and I don’t want that.”

At this the young man again pressed a kiss upon her lips, murmuring:  “You shall be my wife, and nobody will then dare to hurt you.”

“Oh! please, I entreat you!” she said, with a stifled cry; “don’t kiss me so.  You hurt me.”

Then, after a short silence:  “You know quite well that I cannot be your wife now.  We are too young.  You would have to wait for me, and meanwhile I should die of shame.  You are wrong in protesting; you will be forced to leave me in some corner.”

At this Silvere, his fortitude exhausted, began to cry.  A man’s sobs are fraught with distressing hoarseness.  Miette, quite frightened as she felt the poor fellow shaking in her arms, kissed him on the face, forgetting she was burning her lips.  But it was all her fault.  She was a little simpleton to have let a kiss upset her so completely.  She now clasped her lover to her bosom as if to beg forgiveness for having pained him.  These weeping children, so anxiously clasping one another, made the dark night yet more woeful than before.  In the distance, the bells continued to complain unceasingly in panting accents.

“It is better to die,” repeated Silvere, amidst his sobs; “it is better to die.”

“Don’t cry; forgive me,” stammered Miette.  “I will be brave; I will do all you wish.”

When the young man had dried his tears:  “You are right,” he said; “we cannot return to Plassans.  But the time for cowardice has not yet come.  If we come out of the struggle triumphant, I will go for aunt Dide, and we will take her ever so far away with us.  If we are beaten——­”