s pale as death, and, seeing that she gave him no answer, he
went on: "You are a good, steady, active and economical girl; and a wife
like you would make a man's fortune."

She did not move, but looked frightened; she did not even try to
comprehend his meaning, for her thoughts were in a whirl, as if at the
approach of some great danger; so, after waiting for a few seconds, he
went on: "You see, a farm without a mistress can never succeed, even
with a servant like you." Then he stopped, for he did not know what else
to say, and Rose looked at him with the air of a person who thinks that
he is face to face with a murderer and ready to flee at the slightest
movement he may make; but, after waiting for about five minutes, he
asked her: "Well, will it suit you?" "Will what suit me, master?" And he
said quickly: "Why, to marry me, by Heaven!"

She jumped up, but fell back on her chair, as if she had been struck,
and there she remained motionless, like a person who is overwhelmed
by some great misfortune. At last the farmer grew impatient and said:
"Come, what more do you want?" She looked at him, almost in terror, then
suddenly the tears came into her eyes and she said twice in a choking
voice: "I cannot, I cannot!" "Why not?" he asked. "Come, don't be silly;
I will give you until tomorrow to think it over."

And he hurried out of the room, very glad to have got through with the
matter, which had troubled him a good deal, for he had no doubt that
she would the next morning accept a proposal which she could never have
expected and which would be a capital bargain for him, as he thus bound
a woman to his interests who would certainly bring him more than if she
had the best dowry in the district.

Neither could there be any scruples about an unequal match between them,
for in the country every one is very nearly equal; the farmer works
with his laborers, who frequently become masters in their turn, and the
female servants constantly become the mistresses of the establishments
without its making any change in their life or habits.

Rose did not go to bed that night. She threw herself, dressed as she
was, on her bed, and she had not even the strength to cry left in her,
she was so thoroughly dumfounded. She remained quite inert, scarcely
knowing that she had a body, and without being at all able to collect
her thoughts, though, at moments, she remembered something of what had
happened, and then she was frightened at the idea