Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 3.djvu/181

159 THE ETRUSCAN VASE 159

the former mistress of Massigny filled him with loathing.

" Nevertheless, I owe it to her to marry her," he said to himself, " and it shall be done. No- doubt she thinks, poor woman, I heard all about her former liaison; it seems to have been gener- ally known. Besides, she did not then know me. . . . She can not understand me; she thinks that I am only such another lover as Massigny."

Then he said to himself, and not without a certain pride —

" For three months she has made me the hap- piest man hving; such happiness is worth the sacrifice of my life."

He did not go to bed, but rode about among the woods the whole of the morning. In one of the pathways of the woods of Verrieres he saw a man mounted on a fine English horse, who called him immediately by his name while he was still far off. It was Alphonse de Themines. To a man in Saint-Clair's state of mind sohtude is particularly desirable, and this encounter with Themines changed his bad humour into a furious temper. Themines did not notice his mood, or perhaps took a wicked pleasure in thwarting it* He talked and laughed and joked without no- ticing that he did not receive any response.