resigned attitude which Calyste took after his burst of tears had
subsided. Before he left her, he asked permission to go into Beatrix's
bedroom, where he had seen her on the night of her illness, and there
he laid his head on the pillow where hers had lain.

"I am committing follies," he said, grasping Camille's hand, and
bidding her good-night in deep dejection.

He returned home, found the usual company at /mouche/, and passed the
remainder of the evening sitting beside his mother. The rector, the
Chevalier du Halga, and Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel all knew of Madame de
Rochefide's departure, and were rejoicing in it. Calyste would now
return to them; and all three watched him cautiously. No one in that
old manor-house was capable of imagining the result of a first love,
the love of youth in a heart so simple and so true as that of Calyste.



XVI

SICKNESS UNTO DEATH

For several days Calyste went regularly to Les Touches. He paced round
and round the lawn, where he had sometimes walked with Beatrix on his
arm. He often went to Croisic to stand upon that fateful rock, or lie
for hours in the bush of box; for, by studying the footholds on the
sides of the fissure, he had found a means of getting up and down.

These solitary trips, his silence, his gravity, made his mother very
anxious. After about two weeks, during which time this conduct, like