As you fear lest you may offend me, I cannot help dreading that I may allow you to commit a gaucherie. Let us stop here, I beg; and, as I know my way now, accept my thanks, and do not trouble yourself to go any farther.”

“I should have expected this reply,” said Bénédict, deeply wounded. “I should at least have counted upon the evidences of sound judgment and sensibility which I observed in Mademoiselle de Raimbault.”

Valentine did not deign to reply. She bowed coldly, and, dismayed at the position in which she found herself, lashed her horse and rode away.

Bénédict looked after her in consternation. Suddenly he struck his forehead angrily with his hand.

“I am a stupid animal,” he cried ; “ she doesn’t understand me!”

And, jumping his horse across the ditch, he rode diagonally across the enclosure Valentine was skirting. In three minutes he was in front of her, barring her road. Valentine was so frightened that she almost fell backward.

VII

Bénédict threw himself from his horse.

“Mademoiselle,” he cried, “I fall at your feet! Do not be afraid of me. You see that I cannot follow you on foot. Deign to listen to me a moment. I am a miserable fool. I offered you a deadly insult, imagining that you did not choose to understand me; and, as I shall simply heap folly upon folly if I try to prepare you, I will go straight to my goal. Have you not recently heard something of a person who is dear to you ?”

“Oh ! speak !” cried Valentine, with a cry that came from her heart.

“I knew it,” said Bénédict, joyfully. “You love her, you are sorry for her; we have not been deceived. You want to see her; you are ready to hold out your arms to her. All that is said of you is true, is it not, mademoiselle ?”

It did not occur to Valentine to distrust Bénédict’s sincerity. He had touched the most sensitive chord of her heart; prudence would thenceforth have seemed to her rank cowardice; that is the characteristic of impulsive and generous natures.

“If you know where she is, monsieur,” she cried, clasping her hands, “I bless you, for you will surely tell me.”

“I am about to do a thing that will perhaps be blameworthy in the eyes of society, for I am about to lead you aside from the path of filial obedience. But I shall do it without remorse ; my friendship for that person makes it my duty, and my admiration for you leads me to believe that you will never reproach me for it. This morning she walked four leagues through the dew-laden grass, over the stones in the pastures, wrapped in a peasant’s cloak, just to obtain a glimpse of you at your window or in your garden. She returned unsuccessful. Are you willing to compensate her this evening, and to pay her for all the sorrows of her life ?”

“Take me to her, monsieur; I ask it in the name of all that you hold dearest on earth.”

“Very well,” said Bénédict, “trust yourself to me. You must not be seen at the farm. Although my people are still away, the servants might see you. They would talk, and to-morrow your mother, being informed of your visit, would begin to persecute your sister afresh. Let me hitch your horse with mine under these trees, and follow me.”

Valentine sprang lightly to the ground, without waiting for Bénédict to offer her his hand. But she was no sooner on her feet than the instinct of danger, natural to the purest women, awoke in her; she was afraid. Bénédict fastened the horses under a clump of maples. As he walked back toward her, he cried, with evident sincerity:

“Oh ! how happy she will be, and how little she expects the joy that is approaching her!”

These words reassured Valentine. She followed her guide along a path, all damp with the evening dew, to the entrance to a hemp field which was enclosed by a ditch. They had to pass over a tottering plank. Bénédict jumped into the ditch and held it while Valentine crossed.

“Here, Perdreau ! down, keep quiet!” he said to a great dog which rushed toward them growling, and, on recognizing his master, made as much noise by his caresses as he had made by his demonstrations of distrust.

Bénédict sent him away with a kick, and ushered his trembling companion into the farm garden, which was situated behind the buildings, as in most rustic dwellings.