Putting her hands in the Count's she jumped lightly to her feet. The young men led the girls back to the farm, and silence descended upon the Five Divisions of the Globe. But love made every one of these young creatures somewhat unsettled, and it was long before either of them slept. Esperance and Genevieve talked low, and long silences broke their confidences. Count Styvens had brought cigarettes for Maurice and Jean. All three stayed and talked a long time in the painter's room. Alone with men, Styvens lost all the timidity that sometimes made him awkward. His broad and cultivated mind, his humanitarian philosophy unaffected by his religious beliefs, the sincere simplicity with which he expressed himself, made a great impression on Jean and Maurice. "That man," said the latter to his friend, "is of another epoch, an epoch when he would have been a hero or a martyr!" "Perhaps he may yet be both," murmured Jean. CHAPTER XIX Next morning Albert Styvens asked Maurice to show him the portrait of Esperance. He gazed at it a long time in silent admiration. He could gaze his fill at a portrait without outraging the conventions. "What marvellous delicacy! Oh! the blue of the eyes! The mother of pearl of the temples!" He sat down, quivering with emotion, and looked frankly at Maurice. "I love your cousin; you know that, don't you?" Maurice nodded. "I have loved her for a year, and you see me here, still hesitating to speak to her father." "Why?" "Because I know that she does not love me.... Oh! I believe," he went on sadly, "I hope, at least that she does feel some friendship for me--but if she declines my proposal... what else would ever matter to me?" Maurice came and sat down beside him. "Your mother?" he queried. "My mother loves Esperance devotedly, and she has a very real admiration for your uncle as well. She is very religious. M. Darbois's philosophical books, which deny nothingness and proclaim the ideal, have been a great comfort to her in her voluntary solitude. She would be very happy to know if I could be happy." "But," objected Maurice. "I am afraid that my cousin does not wish to give up her art--the stage."