any light; he was not without hopes of seeing Madam de Cleves
again, though he was convinced that she knew him, and that she
went away only to avoid him; but when he found the doors were
shut, he knew he had nothing more to hope; he went to take horse
near the place where Monsieur de Cleves's gentleman was watching
him; this gentleman followed him to the same village, where he
had left him in the evening. The Duke resolved to stay there all
the day, in order to return at night to Colomiers, to see if
Madam de Cleves would yet have the cruelty to shun him or not
expose herself to view: though he was very much pleased to find
himself so much in her thoughts, yet was he extremely grieved at
the same time to see her so naturally bent to avoid him.

Never was passion so tender and so violent as that of Monsieur de
Nemours; he walked under the willows, along a little brook which
ran behind the house, where he lay concealed; he kept himself as
much out of the way as possible, that he might not be seen by
anybody; he abandoned himself to the transports of his love, and
his heart was so full of tenderness, that he was forced to let
fall some tears, but those tears were such as grief alone could
not shed; they had a mixture of sweetness and pleasure in them
which is to be found only in love.

He set himself to recall to mind all the actions of Madam de
Cleves ever since he had been in love with her; her cruelty and
rigour, and that modesty and decency of behaviour she had always
observed towards him, though she loved him; "For, after all, she
loves me," said he, "she loves me, I cannot doubt of it, the
deepest engagements and the greatest favours are not more certain
proofs than those I have had. In the meantime, I am treated with