At this moment Rouget, who hated Max, thought his tormentor an angel.

A passion like that of this miserable old man for Flore is astonishingly like the emotions of childhood.

At six o'clock, the Pole, who had merely taken a walk, returned to announce that Flore had driven towards Vatan.
"Madame is going back to her own people, that's plain," said Kouski.
"Would you like to go to Vatan to-night ?" said Max.

"The road is bad, but Kouski knows how to drive, and you'll make your peace better to-night than to-morrow morning." "Let us go!" cried Rouget.
"Put the horse in quietly," said Max to Kouski; "manage, if you can, that the town shall not know of this nonsense, for Monsieur Rouget's sake.

Saddle my horse," he added in a whisper.