She suffered from this in advance and became irritable.
Under the trees he took her hand and kissed her.
"Is it not rare, Therese, to love as we love each other ?" "Rare?
I don't know; but I think that you love me." "And you ?" "I, too, love you." "And you will love me always ?" "What does one ever know ?" And seeing the face of her lover darken: "Would you be more content with a woman who would swear to love only you for all time ?" He remained anxious, with a wretched air.

She was kind and she reassured him: "You know very well, my friend, that I am not fickle." Almost at the end of the lane they said good-by.

He kept the carriage to return to the Rue Royale.

He was to dine at the club and go to the theatre, and had no time to lose.
Therese returned home on foot.

Opposite the Trocadero she remembered what the old flower-woman had said: "One can see that you are young." The words came back to her with a significance not immoral but sad.