distance, and the rain soon ceased altogether. Claude, who was now
growing embarrassed, had examined the girl, askance. She seemed by no
means bad looking, and assuredly she was young: twenty at the most.
This scrutiny had the effect of making him more suspicious of her
still, in spite of an unconscious feeling, a vague idea, that she was
not altogether deceiving him. In any case, no matter how clever she
might be, she was mistaken if she imagined she had caught him. To
prove this he wilfully exaggerated his gruffness and curtness of
manner.

Her very anguish at his words and demeanour made her rise, and in her
turn she examined him, though without daring to look him straight in
the face. And the aspect of that bony young man, with his angular
joints and wild bearded face, increased her fears. With his black felt
hat and his old brown coat, discoloured by long usage, he looked like
a kind of brigand.

Directly he told her to make herself at home and go to bed, for he
placed his bed at her disposal, she shrinkingly replied: 'Thank you;
I'll do very well as I am; I'll not undress.'

'But your clothes are dripping,' he retorted. 'Come now, don't make an
idiot of yourself.'

And thereupon he began to knock about the chairs, and flung aside an
old screen, behind which she noticed a washstand and a tiny iron
bedstead, from which he began to remove the coverlet.

'No, no, monsieur, it isn't worth while; I assure you that I shall
stay here.'