heart, without knowing it.

He looked at her intently, in spite of himself, and she grew embarrassed
at his looks and blushed. He saw it and tried to turn away his eyes; but
he involuntarily fixed them upon her again every moment, although he
tried to look in another direction, and in a few days they knew each
other without having spoken. He gave up his place to her when the
omnibus was full, and got outside, though he was very sorry to do it. By
this time, she had got so far as to greet him with a little smile; and
although she always dropped her eyes under his looks, which she felt
were too ardent, yet she did not appear offended at being looked at in
such a manner.

They ended by speaking. A kind of rapid intimacy had become established
between them, a daily intimacy of half an hour, and that was certainly
one of the most charming half hours in his life, to him. He thought of
her all the rest of the time, saw her continually during the long office
hours, for he was haunted and bewitched by that floating and yet
tenacious recollection which the image of a beloved woman leaves in us,
and it seemed to him that the entire possession of that little person
would be maddening happiness to him, almost above human realization.

Every morning now she shook hands with him, and he preserved the feeling
of that touch, and the recollection of the gentle pressure of her little
fingers, until the next day, and he almost fancied that he preserved the
imprint of it, on his skin, and he anxiously waited for this short
omnibus ride, all the rest of the time, while Sundays seemed to him
heart-breaking days. However, there was no doubt that she loved him, for
one Saturday, in spring, she promised to go and lunch with him at
Maisons-Laffitte the next day.