An Evening in the CountryM. Guerin's Dido, a charming sketch!

　　STROMBECKWhen he saw Madame de Renal again, the next morning, there was astrange look in his eyes; he watched her like an enemy with whom hewould presently be engaged. This expression, so different from his expression overnight, made Madame de Renal lose her head; she had beenkind to him, and he appeared vexed. She could not take her eyes fromhis.

　　Madame Derville's presence excused Julien from his share of the conversation, and enabled him to concentrate his attention upon what hehad in mind. His sole occupation, throughout the day, was that of fortifying himself by reading the inspired text which refreshed his soul.

　　He greatly curtailed the children's lessons, and when, later on, thepresence of Madame de Renal recalled him to the service of his own vanity, decided that it was absolutely essential that this evening she shouldallow her hand to remain in his.

　　The sun as it set and so brought nearer the decisive moment madeJulien's heart beat with a strange excitement. Night fell. He observed,with a joy that lifted a huge weight from his breast, that it was very dark.

　　A sky packed with big clouds, kept in motion by a hot breeze, seemed toforebode a tempest. The two women continued strolling until a late hour.

　　Everything that they did this evening seemed strange to Julien. Theywere enjoying this weather, which, in certain delicate natures, seems toenhance the pleasure of love.

　　At last they sat down, Madame de Renal next to Julien, and MadameDerville on the other side of her friend. Preoccupied with the attempt hemust shortly make, Julien could think of nothing to say. The conversation languished.

　　 'Shall I tremble like this and feel as uncomfortable the first time I haveto fight a duel?' Julien wondered; for he had too little confidence either inhimself or in others not to observe the state he was in.

　　In this agonising uncertainty, any danger would have seemed to himpreferable. How often did he long to see Madame de Renal called bysome duty which would oblige her to return to the house and so leavethe garden! The violence of the effort which Julien had to make to controlhimself was such that his voice was entirely altered; presently Madamede Renal's voice became tremulous also, but Julien never noticed this.

　　The ruthless warfare which his sense of duty was waging with his natural timidity was too exhausting for him to be in a condition to observeanything outside himself. The quarter before ten had sounded from thetower clock, without his having yet ventured on anything. Julien,ashamed of his cowardice, told himself: 'At the precise moment when teno'clock strikes, I shall carry out the intention which, all day long, I havebeen promising myself that I would fulfil this evening, or I shall go up tomy room and blow my brains out.'

　　After a final interval of tension and anxiety, during which the excess ofhis emotion carried Julien almost out of his senses, the strokes of tensounded from the clock overhead. Each stroke of that fatal bell stirred anecho in his bosom, causing him almost a physical revulsion.

　　Finally, while the air was still throbbing with the last stroke of ten, heput out his hand and took that of Madame de Renal, who at once withdrew it. Julien, without exactly knowing what he was doing, grasped herhand again. Although greatly moved himself, he was struck by the icycoldness of the hand he was clasping; he pressed it with convulsiveforce; a last attempt was made to remove it from him, but finally thehand was left in his grasp.

　　His heart was flooded with joy, not because he loved Madame de Renal, but because a fearful torment was now at an end. So that MadameDerville should not notice anything, he felt himself obliged to speak; hisvoice, now, was loud and ringing. Madame de Renal's, on the otherhand, betrayed such emotion that her friend thought she must be ill andsuggested to her that they should go indoors. Julien saw the danger: 'IfMadame de Renal returns to the drawing-room, I am going to fall backinto the horrible position I have been in all day. I have not held this handlong enough to be able to reckon it as a definite conquest.'

　　When Madame Derville repeated her suggestion that they should gointo the drawing-room, Julien pressed the hand that lay in his.

　　 Madame de Renal, who was preparing to rise, resumed her seat, saying in a faint tone:

　　'I do, as a matter of fact, feel a little unwell, but the fresh air is doingme good.'

　　These words confirmed Julien's happiness, which, at this moment, wasextreme: he talked, forgot to dissimulate, appeared the most charming ofmen to his two hearers. And yet there was still a slight want of couragein this eloquence which had suddenly come to him. He was in a deadlyfear lest Madame Derville, exhausted by the wind which was beginningto rise, and heralded the storm, might decide to go in by herself to thedrawing-room. Then he would be left alone with Madame de Renal. Hehad found almost by accident the blind courage which was sufficient foraction; but he felt that it lay beyond his power to utter the simplest ofwords to Madame de Renal. However mild her reproaches might be, hewas going to be defeated, and the advantage which he had just gainedwiped out.

　　Fortunately for him, this evening, his touching and emphatic speechesfound favour with Madame Derville, who as a rule found him as awkward as a schoolboy, and by no means amusing. As for Madame de Renal, her hand lying clasped in Julien's, she had no thought of anything;she was allowing herself to live. The hours they spent beneath this hugelime, which, local tradition maintained, had been planted by Charles theBold, were for her a time of happiness. She listened with rapture to themoaning of the wind in the thick foliage of the lime, and the sound of thefirst few drops that were beginning to fall upon its lowest leaves. Juliendid not notice a detail which would have greatly reassured him; Madame de Renal, who had been obliged to remove her hand from his, onrising to help her cousin to pick up a pot of flowers which the wind hadoverturned at their feet, had no sooner sat down again than she gave himback her hand almost without difficulty, and as though it had been anunderstood thing between them.

　　Midnight had long since struck; at length it was time to leave thegarden: the party broke up. Madame de Renal, transported by the joy ofbeing in love, was so ignorant that she hardly reproached herself at all.

　　Happiness robbed her of sleep. A sleep like lead carried off Julien, utterly worn out by the battle that had been raging all day in his heartbetween timidity and pride.

　　Next morning he was called at five o'clock; and (what would havebeen a cruel blow to Madame de Renal had she known of it) he barely gave her a thought. He had done his duty, and a heroic duty. Filled withjoy by this sentiment, he turned the key in the door of his bedroom andgave himself up with an entirely new pleasure to reading about the exploits of his hero.

　　When the luncheon bell sounded, he had forgotten, in reading the reports of the Grand Army, all the advantages he had won overnight. Hesaid to himself, in a careless tone, as he went down to the drawing-room:

　　'I must tell this woman that I love her.'

　　Instead of that gaze charged with passion which he expected to meet,he found the stern face of M. de Renal, who, having arrived a couple ofhours earlier from Verrieres, did not conceal his displeasure on findingthat Julien was wasting the whole morning without attending to the children. No sight could have been so unprepossessing as that of this self-important man, conscious of a grievance and confident of his right to letit be seen.

　　Each of her husband's harsh words pierced Madame de Renal to theheart. As for Julien, he was so plunged in ecstasy, still so absorbed in thegreat events which for the last few hours had been happening before hiseyes, that at first he could barely lower the pitch of his attention to listento the stern voice of M. de Renal. At length he answered him, sharplyenough:

　　'I was unwell.'

　　The tone of this reply would have stung a man far less susceptiblethan the Mayor of Verrieres; it occurred to him to reply to Julien with animmediate dismissal. He was restrained only by the maxim which hehad laid down for himself, never to be too hasty in business matters.

　　'This young fool,' he soon reminded himself, 'has made himself a sortof reputation in my house; Valenod may take him on, or else he willmarry Elisa, a............