Nevertheless, she hastened her steps. It was not yet the psychological moment. The love-making of a man of forty is more clear-sighted and artful, less hurried than that of a young man. He evaded the issue, rather than declare himself. "When you were a young girl, I had dreamed of asking you to marry me." "So I have been told." "Ah.... If you had been happy, I should not have recalled it. I should never have reminded you of it. But I cannot bear the look of pain that crosses your face. You are so young. So many years are before you to retrieve the grief of the past." She stopped, overwhelmed, trembling. So many years ... Yes ... until the old age of her father. The errors of the past: the soul of Autumn, Anne de Sézery. That was the beauty of living! "Why do you speak to me like this?" she said in a stifled voice. He read trouble and confusion in her frightened eyes, which stared at him, and so mistaking her attitude, he dared to hold the young woman's hands affectionately. "I am so sorry for you. Do you not understand?" She freed herself, tried to recover her breath, then rebelliously protested: "You! ... Oh, you! ... Leave me." "Madame," he begged. But she had already fled down the path. Motionless, his feet rooted to the spot, he watched her distinct figure until a tree suddenly hid her from sight. Then, seeking support, he threw himself on the grass. His deepest emotions were always controlled and lent themselves to the demands of reason. He pleaded in his own defense the extenuating circumstances of the hour, the season, his vanishing youth. Can a man see with impunity almost daily a young woman of charm, who shows that she takes pleasure in his society? He tried unsuccessfully to become tender in thinking about himself, his loneliness intensified by a superior mentality, hampered in his search for happiness by hesitation, excessive analysis and disenchantment. One thought alone, which he tried to put away with all his force, overlapped all others, as a higher and swifter wave submerges those which precede it: he had betrayed his friend. After one last thought of Albert's aversion, he gave way to his self-contempt, and lying on the earth, his face hidden, humiliated in his faith in himself, he wept tears of despair. This was a moment which he no longer had the power to dismiss; henceforth, its remembrance must come to him relentlessly every time he sought the silence of his inmost heart.... II THE WATCH