The thought came to her "Perhaps this is the voice he has now." Terrified, she swiftly pushed her skirt over her knees.

But she refrained from crying out, and she did not speak of what she had just heard, lest she should be taken for a madwoman, and because she realized somehow that it was not real.
Ligny drew away from her.
"If you don't want anything more to do with me, say so honestly.

I am not going to take you by force." Sitting upright, with her knees pressed together, she told him: "Whenever we are in a crowd, as long as there are people about us, I want you, I long for you, but as soon as we are by ourselves I am afraid." He replied by a cheap, spiteful sneer: "Ah, if you must have a public to stimulate you!" She rose, and returned to the window.

A tear was running down her cheek.
She wept for some time in silence.

Suddenly she called to him: "Look there!" She pointed to Jeanne Perrin, who was strolling on the lawn with a young woman.