Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/92

68 instinct of solidarity more than of modesty dictated this silence. In truth, she could not bring herself to be angry with this ruffian, at first so commanding, and then so dejected, almost sheepish; she was persuaded even, that he would have asked pardon, had he dared, but tenderness and a certain gratitude made him almost as timid as violent desire had rendered him unbridled. A few days later Blandine heard that big Ariaan had been arrested in the environs, captured by the police as he was swimming across the Nethe. Her pitiable violator had become a formidable criminal. She was resolved more than ever to keep silence, anxious not to involve him in new difficulties or to bring upon him a heavier punishment.

But the unfortunate girl had counted without considering the tell-tale denunciations of nature. She became pregnant.

Her stepmother, pharisaically virtuous, burst out into loud outcries, tore her hair, pretended to be in despair; but inwardly she was delighted with this plausible occasion to rage against her victim, and to give free course to her unnatural instincts. Perhaps even, in sending this child with the Roseland had she hoped some such thing might happen.