buy, with the view of convincing me that I ought to marry Mme. de
Noriolis. The places of Noriolis and of La Roche-Targé were scarcely
three kilometers apart in that map. My aunt, with her own hands, had
drawn a line of red ink, and slily united the two places, and she forced
me to look at her little red line, saying to me, 'Two thousand acres
without a break, when the places of Noriolis and La Roche-Targé are
united; what a chance for a hunter!'

"I closed my eyes, so strong was the temptation, and repeated my
refrain, 'I don't want to marry.' But I was afraid, seriously afraid;
and when I met Mme. de Noriolis I always saw her surrounded, as by a
halo, by the little red line of my aunt, and I said to myself: 'A
charming, and clever, and sensible woman, whose first husband was an
idiot, and this and that, and two thousand acres without a break. Run
away, wretch, run away, since you don't wish to marry.'

"And I ran away! But this time by what means could I run away? I was
there, miserable, in the grass, covered with sand, with my hair in
disorder, my clothes in rags, and my unfortunate leg stiff. And Mme. de
Noriolis came nearer, looking spick and span--always in the halo of the
little red line--and said to me:

"'You, M. de La Roche-Targé, is it you? What are you doing there? What
has happened to you?'

"I frankly confessed my fall.

"'At least you are not wounded?'

"'No, no, I'm not wounded. I've something the matter with that leg; but