Suppose it were not he, but a thief? But no; someone called out softly, "_Matilda_!" and when she replied, "_Etienne_!" a man jumped on to the path with a crash. It was he,--and what a kiss! For a long time they remained in each other's arms, with united lips. But suddenly a fine rain began to fall, and the drops from the leaves fell on to her neck and made her start. Whereupon he said: "Matilda, my adored one, my darling, my angel, let us go indoors. It is twelve o'clock, we can have nothing to fear; please let us go to your room." "No, dearest; I am too frightened." But he held her in his arms, and whispered in her ear: "Your servants sleep on the third floor, looking on to the Square, and your room, on the first, looks on to the garden, so nobody can hear us. I love you so that I wish to love you entirely, from head to foot." And he embraced her vehemently. She resisted still, frightened and even ashamed. But he put his arms round her, lifted her up, and carried her off under the rain, which was by this time descending in torrents. The door was open; they groped their way upstairs; and when they were in the room he bolted the door while she lit a match. Then she fell, half fainting, into a chair, while he knelt down beside her. At last, she said, panting: "No! no! Etienne, please let me remain a virtuous woman; I should be too angry with you afterwards; and after all, it is so horrid, so common. Cannot we love each other with a spiritual love only?... Oh! Etienne!" But he was inexorable, and then she tried to get up and escape from his attacks. In her fright she ran to the bed in order to hide herself behind the curtains; but it was a dangerous place of refuge, and he followed her. But in haste he took off his sword too quickly, and it fell on the floor with a crash. And then--a prolonged, shrill child's cry came from the next room, the door of which had remained open. "You have awakened the child," she whispered, "and perhaps he will not go to sleep again." He was only fifteen months old, and slept in a room opening out of hers, so that she might be able to hear him. The Captain exclaimed, ardently: "What does it matter, Matilda? How I love you; you must come to me, Matilda." But she struggled, and resisted in her fright. "No! no! Just listen how he is crying; he will wake up the nurse, and what should we do if she were to come? We should be lost. Just listen to me, Etienne. When he screams at night his father always takes him into our bed, and he is quiet immediately; it is the only means of keeping him still. Do let me take him...." The child roared, uttered shrill screams, which pierced the thickest walls, so as to be heard by passers-by in the streets. In his consternation, the Captain got up, and Matilda jumped out and took the child into her bed, when he was quiet at once. Etienne sat astride on a chair, and made a cigarette, and in about five minutes Andrew went to sleep again.