e:
and, at your age, is not that an absurd and miserable ignorance? Is it
not right to wish for love and even to force its coming? Those who go on
waiting for it in meek resignation appear to me so guilty!... Life has
always seemed to me to be divided into two parts: the search for love;
and love. As long as we are not in love, let us continue the search for
it; let us seek stubbornly, madly, cruelly, if need be; let us be
untiring and unrelenting. There are no obstacles for the woman with a
resolute will. Let each of us follow that quest in her own manner,
according to her strength, her means and her courage, through every
danger and every pain. When we have at last found love, or rather our
love, let us go towards it without fear, without false modesty; and, if
we are loved, let us not wait to be entreated for what we can offer
generously. Let us never be pilfered of that which it is our privilege
to give!"

A tendril drops from the creeper above us and caresses our faces....

How delightful life is at this moment! The air is filled with rejoicing,
with the murmur of an infinite happiness! A tremulous haze hovers over
the fields, the insatiate doves reiterate their glad refrain. Around us,
here and there, a slender blade of grass shakes beneath the light weight
of a butterfly. But is not everything lovely in the eyes of a woman who
is talking of love? It is as though happiness were the harbinger of her
glance, flying ahead and settling upon things.

Rose, all attention and curiosity, now questioned me:

"But you, what did you do?"

"In my case," I said, "when I knew that he loved me too, I went to his
country to find him. I can still see us walking in a meadow all bright
with flowers. On the horizon, the blue sky met the sea; and, behind us,
the red roofs, the church-steeples and the tiny white houses of a Dutch
village slowly vanished from sight. He gave me his arm; and it was a joy
to me to let him feel the gladness in my heart by the motion of my hip,
on which he leant slightly. Then he said, 'You walk like a queen for
whom her subjects wait.' And I knew from his words that he was still
waiting for me, though I was by his side, and they suddenly told me
what a blissful kingdom I had to offer him!"

"Did you seek long before that day came?"

"No, once I was free, I found happiness after a few months of trouble
and difficulty; but you see, dear, I would have gone to the other end of
the world to meet my love!