Page:Germinal - Zola - 1925.djvu/262

GERMINAL she would have remained there if the young rogues had not noticed Étienne and Maheu standing in the middle of a glade. They threw themselves on the animal in fear, and put her back again into the basket. Almost at the same minute Zacharie, Mouquet, and the two others, with their last blow at crosse, drove the ball within a few mètres of the glade. They all came into the midst of the rendezvous.

Through the whole country, by the roads and pathways of of the flat plain, ever since twilight, there had been a long procession, a rustling of silent shadows, moving separately or in groups towards the violet thickets of the forest. Every settlement was emptied, the women and children themselves set out as if for a walk beneath the great clear sky. Now the roads were growing dark; this walking crowd, all gliding towards the same goal, could no longer be distinguished. But one felt it, the confused tramping moved by one soul. Between the hedges, among the bushes, there was everywhere a light rustling, a vague rumour of the voices of the night.

M. Hennebeau, who was at this hour returning home, mounted on his mare, listened to these vague sounds. He had met couples, long rows of strollers, on this beautiful winter night. Mere lovers, who were going to take their pleasure, mouth to mouth, behind the walls. Was it not what he always met, girls tumbled over at the bottom of every ditch, beggars who crammed themselves with the only joy that cost nothing? And these fools complained of life, when they could take their fill of this supreme happiness of love! Willingly would he have starved as they did if he could begin life again with a woman who would give herself to him on a heap of stones, with all her strength and all her heart. His misfortune was without consolation, and he envied these wretches. With lowered head he went back, riding his horse at a slackened pace, rendered desperate by these long sounds, lost in the depth of the black country, in which he only heard kisses. [250]