"What is the matter with him?" echoed several of the students.
Esperance alone was not aware what was the matter with him, poor
fellow, for, in spite of the encouragement of Francois Darbois, Jean
would say nothing. He realized the shock that it would be to
Esperance. She liked him so much as a friend! On the long walks they
took, with Genevieve Hardouin and Mlle. Frahender, she had very often
frankly confided to him that she did not want to think about getting
married for years and years!
"I want to live for my art," she would say, "and I will never marry an
artist!"
He had then thought very seriously of giving up the theatre and
becoming a barrister, as his father had always wished him to do, but
that would mean that he would lose the chance of seeing Esperance so
often.
Jean Perliez had become great friends with Maurice Renaud, the girl's
cousin. They both talked of her and loved her, but Maurice's love was
more selfish, less deeply rooted. He was not jealous of Perliez; he
was sorry for him and counselled him to speak up, since his uncle, the
professor, was in sympathy with him.
"No," said Jean, "she is really too young to understand."
Maurice shrugged his shoulders. "It is true that Esperance is not yet
seventeen, but her intelligence has always been ahead of her years. At
twelve she could outdo me by the logic of her reasoning on the
mysteries of religion. We both adore, my dear Jean, a very
extraordinary little person.
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