moon came up red and preposterously large, making
a red-gold path on the water. Idle and ripe for love
were these nights, and idle and ripe for love was
^Eliana, a creature of rich blood and urgent desires,
untamed, unregenerate and unabashed, despite those
chastening years at the convent; moreover she had
now certain memories which served to strengthen the
urge that was in her. Looking at Christophe as he bent
to his oars or strode beside her on the hills of an
evening, his luminous eyes seeming strangely aloof,
jEliana would greatly desire and yet hate him.
'He cannot be human,5 she would think bitterly
when he failed to respond to the touch of her hand, to
the nearness of her provocative body.
And then he must constantly have Jan at his heels
like a watch-dog; it was childish and irritating,
Seldom could she manage to get them apart; together
they had found her and now they shared her, blissfully
unconscious, or so it appeared, of the fact that this
filled her with deep resentment. And yet uEliana
sometimes thought that Jan would have been a less
arduous conquest, this despite his grave talk about
entering the Church.
el could have him if I so wished,5 she would think,
'but I do not want him — I want the other.5 Then
those full, ardent lips and that placid brow would seem
more than ever a contradiction.
One evening she remarked: 'I am tired of the hills;
let us drink a small glass of wine at the cafe/ For
as -iEliana knew, wine can go to the heart .as well as
the head if the gods be propitious.
They hesitated, greatly abashed. Had they got the
price of the wine in their pockets? No matter, Mere
Melanie knew them both and would doubtless allow
them to pay the next morning. Surreptitiously they
examined their cash and found that they could muster
five francs between them.
400