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Rh parlour, he returned to Barnavast. A letter awaited him, pressing him to come. M. Des Boys begged him, with a kind of anxiety, to ﬁx the day on which they could come and fetch him.

Leonor would have liked, however, to devote some few days to meditation. He had a question to answer, "Does she love me?"

"We shall not meet again at Carentan, that is decided. Besides, it was absurd. What a place to make love in! Her failure was due to her repugnance for the surroundings. It was a sign of her reﬁnement of feeling. And then women have no imagination. To me, everything is a palace; the woman I adore would light up a hovel.... Does she love me?"

But it was in vain that he repeated the question; he could ﬁnd no answer.

"What a fool I am! I shall see well enough next time. I continue to love her. She is beautiful, she is obedient.... But is that the aim of my life? Suppose she were given me for my own?"

But to this question he could think of no answer either.