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The air was balmy, charged with the odors of fresh vegetation; they had drunk the most delicious wines. How pleasant everything was on that day! After lunch, Saudres went to sleep on the broad of his back, "The best nap he had in his life," said he, when he woke up. Madame Saudres had taken the arm of Savel, and they had started to walk along the river's bank. She leaned tenderly on his arm.
He had not thought of anything then; and now the whole thing appeared to him quite plain. "Just as you like, my friend. If you are tired let us go back." And he had answered: "It is not that I am fatigued; but Saudres has perhaps woke up now." And she had said: "If you are afraid of my husband's being awake, that is another thing. Let us return."
He recalled the walks that the three of them had had, along the banks of the Seine, their lunches on the grass on the Sundays, for Saudres was employed at the sub-prefecture. And all at once the distant recollection came to him, of an afternoon spent with her in a little plantation on the banks of the river. They had set out in the morning, carrying their provisions in baskets.
In returning she remained silent and leaned no longer on his arm. Why? At that time it had never occurred to him to ask himself "why." Now he seemed to apprehend something that he had not then understood. What was it? M. Savel felt himself blush, and he got up at a bound, feeling thirty years younger, believing that he now understood Madame Saudres then to say, "I love you." Was it possible!
He had loved secretly, dolorously and indifferently, just as was characteristic of him in everything. Yes, he had loved his old friend, Madame Saudres, the wife of his old companion, Saudres. Ah! if he had known her as a young girl! But he had encountered her too late; she was already married. Unquestionably he would have asked her hand; that he would!
Seeing that she was formerly pretty, and "crumy," blonde, curl, joyous. Saudres was not the man she would have selected. She was now fifty-two years of age. She seemed happy. Ah! if she had only loved him in days gone by; yes, if she had only loved him! And why should she not have loved him, he, Savel, seeing that he loved her so much, yes, she, Madame Saudres!
"Tell me ... tell me.... You remember the day when Saudres went to sleep on the grass after lunch ... when we had walked together as far as the bend of the river, below ..." He waited, expectantly. She had ceased to laugh, and looked at him, straight in the eyes. "Yes, certainly, I remember it." He answered, shivering all over.
He recalled all the long evenings spent at the house of Saudres, when the latter's wife was young and so charming. He recalled many things that she had said to him, the sweet intonations of her voice, the little significant smiles that meant so much.
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