And his thoughts slipped backward over the years
to that curious meeting with old Mathilde. What was
it that Mathilde had said about light and things inter-
twined . . . had she also known? Then he suddenly
remembered his painstricken hands, and something
within him faltered and trembled.
§2
The scandal created by ^Eliana and Beauvais still
raged through the town unabated; few people could
talk of anything else. Santouno, a nice business!
But then what could you expect in view of a grand-
father like Eusebe? A drunken old villain who had
even been known to behave with lasciviousness to a
cork tree! Small wonder that the girl had gone to the
bad on the first propitious occasion that offered. And
he wringing his hands and cursing the nuns and
swearing that he would write to the bishop. The
bishop indeed! Boudieu, what next? Perhaps he
would write to Saint Loup himself, or to Saint
Saturnin, or the three Holy Marys! Thus they
talked and looked shocked and wagged scandalized
heads, deploring the looseness of girls since the war,
and forbidding their daughters to visit the cafes.
But Christophe and Jan when alone together
avoided all mention of ^Eliana, for their tongues
would grow stiff at the thought of her name. And this
silence of theirs it was that betrayed them more
completely than any words could have done, so that
each had divined the other's secret, and having divined
it must feel ashamed, as though he had wilfully spied
on his brother.
It was Jan who spoke first — from sheer desperation.
They were walking towards the vineyards one
evening when he stopped abruptly and faced his
friend: cChristophe . . . it is about JSliana. I cannot
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