Mlle. Rivière, who had won the last set, as well as all the preceding ones, came over to wish them good evening. Her dull complexion, heated by the game, had become a deep scarlet, and seemed to be burning. Her white teeth glistened. Her eyes sparkled. "It is a great game," Philippe explained, close behind her, scorning the evident interest she showed. "Her whole soul is in her face." For several days he had been familiarizing the young woman with all the scandals of their set, making her realize how unimportant they were considered. His insolent and distressing pessimism fell upon prepared soil. Elizabeth, after the shock of her father's conduct, found her illusions completely destroyed. After many handshakes had been exchanged, tennis was given up. Although the mountains were still covered with the oblique rays of the sun, the valley was in shadow. There was a definite line of demarcation between themselves and the others. Nobody had joined them. They alone remained behind, as if their tête-à-tête were respected. Vaguely disturbed by this seclusion, Elizabeth directed their steps towards the Mélèzes. "When the night comes on here it looks as though the mountains were coming nearer and the pine trees were drawing nearer, as if to envelop us." In order to calm her, Philippe came closer, and murmured in a confidential tone. "Why are you so sad now-a-days?" "I am not sad." Without regarding this denial, leaning toward her, he continued, in a voice which had ceased to be strident, but became, instead, full of charming inflections, cultivated by that art with which he touched such varied chords at the bar: "You think your life is finished when it is only just beginning. And life can be so beautiful...." She found no ready answer. She was often given to self-pity; in thinking now of her keen suffering for one so young and through no fault of her own, it seemed to her like a new misfortune. Understanding that she was depressed by this introspection, he pointed out the mountain tops which were priding themselves on still retaining the light; then he pointed to the plain, towards the meadows and the woods which were in peaceful repose. Two or three couples, rather far away from them, acknowledged lovers, and so accepted socially by general agreement, were returning to the villas and hotels. "We are very comfortable here, are we not? When I came to Uriage you were so popular, so sought after ..." She did not grasp the exact meaning of the last word. "I did not notice it," she said. "I noticed it for you," said Philippe. In a low voice, choosing his words with care, he continued: "If you only knew how that irritated me." "Why?" she asked naively, as they were passing through a little cluster of pine trees which hid them from sight.