The Day AfterHe turn'd his lips to hers, and with his hand Call'd back thetangles of her wandering hair.

　　Don Juan, I. 170Fortunately for Julien's pride, Madame de Renal had been too greatlyagitated and surprised to notice the fatuity of the man who in a momenthad become everything in the world to her.

　　As she was imploring him to withdraw, seeing the day begin to break:

　　'Oh, Heavens!' she said, 'if my husband has heard any sound, I amlost.'

　　Julien, who had leisure for composing phrases, remembered one to thepoint:

　　'Should you regret your life?'

　　'Ah! Very much at this moment, but I should not regret having knownyou.'

　　Julien found that his dignity required him to return to his room inbroad daylight and with deliberate want of precaution.

　　The continuous attention with which he watched his own slightest actions, in the insane idea of being taken for a man of experience, had thisone advantage; when he saw Madame de Renal again, at luncheon, hisbehaviour was a miracle of prudence.

　　As for her, she could not look at him without blushing to the whites ofher eyes, and could not live for an instant without looking at him; shenoticed her own confusion, and her efforts to conceal it increased. Julienraised his eyes to hers once only. At first, Madame de Renal admired hisprudence. Presently, seeing that this solitary glance was not repeated,she took alarm: 'Can it be that he does not love me any more,' she askedherself; 'alas, I am far too old for him; I am ten years his senior.'

　　 On the way from the dining-room to the garden, she pressed Julien'shand. In the surprise that he felt at so extraordinary a token of affection,he gazed at her with passion; for she had struck him as looking verypretty at luncheon, and, without raising his eyes, he had spent his timemaking a detailed catalogue of her charms. This look consoled Madamede Renal; it did not remove all her uneasiness; but her uneasiness removed, almost entirely, the remorse she felt when she thought of herhusband.

　　At luncheon, the said husband had noticed nothing; not so with Madame Derville; she feared Madame de Renal to be on the point of succumbing. All through the day, her bold, incisive friendship did not sparethe other those hinted suggestions intended to portray in hideous col-ours the danger that she was running.

　　Madame de Renal was burning to be left alone with Julien; she wantedto ask him whether he still loved her. Despite the unalterable gentlenessof her nature, she was more than once on the point of letting her friendknow what a nuisance she was making of herself.

　　That evening, in the garden, Madame Derville arranged things so skilfully that she found herself placed between Madame de Renal and Julien. Madame de Renal, who had formed a delicious image of the pleasureof pressing Julien's hand and carrying it to her lips, could not so much asaddress a word to him.

　　This catastrophe increased her agitation. Remorse for one thing wasgnawing her. She had so scolded Julien for the imprudence he hadshown in coming to her room the night before, that she trembled lest hemight not come that night. She left the garden early, and went up to waitin her room. But, beside herself with impatience, she rose and went toglue her ear to Julien's door. Despite the uncertainty and passion thatwere devouring her, she did not dare enter. This action seemed to her thelast word in lowness, for it serves as text to a country maxim.

　　The servants were not all in bed. Prudence obliged her finally to returnto her own room. Two hours of waiting were two centuries of torment.

　　But Julien was too loyal to what he called his duty, to fail in the execution, detail by detail, of what he had laid down for himself.

　　As one o'clock struck, he slipped quietly from his room, made surethat the master of the house was sound asleep, and appeared before Madame de Renal. On this occasion he found greater happiness with hismistress, for he was less continually thinking of the part he had to play.

　　 He had eyes to see and ears to hear. What Madame de Renal said to himabout his age contributed to give him some degree of self-assurance.

　　'Alas! I am ten years older than you! How can you love me?' she repeated without any object, simply because the idea oppressed her.

　　Julien could not conceive such a thing, but he saw that her distress wasgenuine, and almost entirely forgot his fear of being ridiculous.

　　The foolish idea of his being regarded as a servile lover, at hismistress's beck and call, on account of his humble birth, vanished likewise. In proportion as Julien's transports reassured his coy mistress, sherecovered some degree of happiness and the faculty of criticising her lover. Fortunately, he sho............