She was as poor as he. The contract was
ready to be signed, the preparations for the wedding complete, when his
mother said:
"And your sister? Who will marry her?"
That simple remark made him understand that if he married, he would spend
all his money in the household expenses and his sister would have no
dowry. He broke off the engagement, bravely renouncing his happy
prospects; he then came to Paris.
When I heard that story, I wanted to see the hero. That simple,
unassuming act of devotion seemed to me more admirable than all the
glories of war.
The more I examined that young man, the less I felt inclined to broach
the subject nearest my heart. The idea which had first occurred to me
that he would harm me in Brigitte's eyes, vanished at once. Gradually, my
thoughts took another course; I looked at him attentively, and it seemed
to me that he was also examining me with curiosity.
We were both twenty-one years of age, but what a difference between us!
He was accustomed to an existence regulated by the graduated tick of the
clock; never having seen anything of life, except that part of it which
lies between an obscure room on the fourth floor and a dingy government
office; sending his mother all his savings--that farthing of human joy
which the hand of toil clasps so greedily; having no thought except for
the happiness of others, and that since his childhood, since he had been
a babe in arms! And I, during that precious time, so swift, so
inexorable, during that time, that with him was bathed in sweat, what had
I done? Was I a man? Which of us had lived?
What I have said in a page, can be comprehended in a glance.
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