Naturally poor Julie abhorred the opinions of the marchioness and her circle; but she had not had enough experience, she did not sufficiently appreciate the general tendency of her time to realize the utter puerility of the persecutions she would have had to undergo if she had resolved to live in accordance with the dictates of her heart and her conscience. In that cage of prejudice she was like a bird which thinks that the world has formed itself into a cage about him, and which no longer understands the breath of the wind among the leaves and the flight of other birds through space. "There may be happy people," she said to herself, "but how far away they are. And how can I join them?" In like manner, on the eve of a terrible revolution, the prisoners of the past wept over their chains and believed that they were riveted upon them for all eternity. Nevertheless Julie, the greater part of the time, forgot this whole matter of external facts to lose herself in vague contemplations and in secret preoccupations of a new sort. We shall soon see what the subject of them was, and how great difficulty that generous but timid heart had in coming to terms with itself. A fortnight had passed since the disaster to the _Antonia_, and Madame d'Estrelle had neither seen nor heard of Julien. She might have believed that he had never existed and that their two interviews were a dream. Madame Thierry had not set foot in the garden, and when Julie, surprised at her continued absence, sent to inquire for her, the answer was that she was a little indisposed--nothing alarming--but forced to keep her room. Marcel, when she questioned him, evaded her questions, confirmed the statement as to his aunt's slight indisposition, but went into no details. Julie dared not insist; she divined that her neighbor was determined to break off every sort of relation, every pretext for communication, even indirect, between her and Julien. At last, one morning, Madame Thierry reappeared, when Julie least expected her. In reply to Julie's reserved and timid questions, she said effusively: