I
Margot Fresquyl had allowed herself to be tempted for the first time by
the delicious intoxication of the mortal sin of loving, on the evening
of Midsummer Day.
While most of the young people were holding each others' hands and
dancing in a circle round the burning logs, the girl had slyly taken the
deserted road which led to the wood, leaning on the arm of her partner,
a tall, vigorous farm servant, whose Christian name was Tiennou, which,
by the way, was the only name he had borne from his birth. For he was
entered on the register of births with this curt note: _Father and
mother unknown_; he having been found on St. Stephen's Day under a shed
on a farm, where some poor, despairing wretch had abandoned him, perhaps
even without turning her head round to look at him.
For months Tiennou had madly worshiped that fair, pretty girl, who was
now trembling as he clasped her in his arms, under the sweet coolness of
the leaves. He religiously rememberd how she had dazzled him--like some
ecstastic vision, the recollection of which always remains imprinted on
the eyes--the first time that he saw her in her father's mill, where he
had gone to ask for work. She stood out all rosy from the warmth of the
day, amidst the impalpable clouds of flour, which diffused an indistinct
whiteness through the air. With her hair hanging about her in untidy
curls, as if she had just awakened from a profound sleep, she stretched
herself lazily, with her bare arms clasped behind her head, and yawned
so as to show her white teeth, which glistened like those of a young
wolf, and her maiden nudity appeared beneath her unbuttoned bodice with
innocent immodesty. He told her that he thought her adorable, so
stupidly, that she made fun of him and scourged him with her cruel
laughter; and, from that day he spent his life in Margot's shadow. He
might have been taken for one of those wild beasts ardent with desire,
which ceaselessly utter maddened cries to the stars on nights when the
constellations bathe the dark coverts in warm light. Margot met him
wherever she went, and seized with pity, and by degrees agitated by his
sobs, by his dumb entreaties, by the burning looks which flashed from
his large eyes, she had returned his love; she had dreamt restlessly
that during a whole night she had been in his vigorous arms which
pressed her like corn that is being crushed in the mill, that she was
obeying a man who had subdued her, and learning strange things which the
other girls talked about in a low voice when they were drawing water at
the well.
She had, however, been obliged to wait until Midsummer Day, for the
miller watched over his heiress very carefully.
The two lovers told each other all this as they were going along the
dark road, and innocently giving utterance to words of happiness, which
rise to the lips like the forgotten refrain of a song. At times they
were silent, not knowing what more to say, and not daring to embrace
each other any more. The night was soft and warm, the warmth of a
half-closed alcove in a bedroom, and which had the effect of a tumbler
of new wine.
The leaves were sleeping motionless and in supreme peace, and in the
distance they could hear the monotonous sound of the brooks as they
flowed over the stones. Amidst the dull noise of the insects, the
nightingales were answering each other from tree to tree, and everything
seemed alive with hidden life, and the sky was bright with such a shower
of falling stars, that they might have been taken for white forms
wandering among the dark trunks of the trees.
"Why have we come?" Margot asked, in a panting voice. "Do you not want
me any more, Tiennou?"
"Alas! I dare not," he replied. "Listen: you know that I was picked up
on the high road, that I have nothing in the world except my two arms,
and that Miller Fresquyl will never let his daughter marry a poor devil
like me."
She interrupted him with a painful gesture, and putting her lips to his,
she said:
"What does that matter? I love you, and I want you ... Take me ..."
And it was thus, on St. John's night, Margot Fresquyl for the first time
yielded to the mortal sin of love.