im into her room, shut the door and repeated, in a masterful
tone:

"Where are you going, Philippe?"

He replied, with the same decision:

"I am going away."

"There is no carriage."

"I shall walk."

"Where to?"

"To Noirmont."

"To take which train?"

"The train to Paris."

"That's not true," she said, vehemently. "You are not going to Paris.
You are going to Langoux, to take the train to Belfort."

"Just so, but I shall be in Paris to-morrow morning."

"That's not true! You do not mean to stop at Belfort. You will go on to
Bale, to Switzerland. And, if you go to Switzerland, it will not be for
a day, it will be for months ... for your life!"

"And what then?"

"You intend to desert, Philippe."

He did not speak. And his silence dumbfoundered her. Violent as was the
certainty that filled and angered her, Marthe was stupefied when he made
no protest.

She stammered:

"Is it possible? You really intend to desert?"

Philippe grew irritable:

"Well, what has it to do with you? You had a letter from me yesterday,
offering you an explanation. You have not even troubled to reply! Very
well! I have done you an irreparable wrong. Our whole married life is
shattered by my fault. Your attitude up to the present shows me that you
never mean to forgive me.... Then what right have you to call me to
account for what I do?"

She repeated, in a low voice, with fixed eyes:

"You intend to desert...."

"Yes."

"Is it really credible? I knew your ideas against war ... all the ideas
in your books ... which agree with my own.... But I never thought of
this.... You never spoke to me of it.... And then, no ... I could never
have believed it...."

"You will have to believe it, for all that, Marthe."

He turned to the door. Once again she stood up in front of him.

"Let me pass," he said.

"No."

"You are mad!"

"Listen to me ... Philippe...."

"I refuse to listen. This is not the time for quarrelling. I have made
up my mind to go. I will go. It is not a rash impulse. It is a decision
taken silently and calmly. Let me pass."

He tried to clear the door. She pushed him back, suddenly seized with an
energy which became all the fiercer as she felt her husband to be more
inflexible. She had only a few minutes; and that was what frightened
her. In those few minutes, by means of phrases, poor phrases flung out
at random, she had to win the battle and to win it against a foe with
whose mettle and obstinac