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these words, but the next moment she was nothing more than a wraith before his eyes, for his spectacles had suddenly misted over.
    'Aren't I always frank?'
    'Yes.'
    'Usually I get criticized for being too frank.'
    'Not by me.'
    'What do you want to ask?'
    'Do you like the house?'
    She looked round her with what seemed to him like indifference.
    'I mean,' he persisted, 'would you like to live here altogether?'
    'Why do you ask me that?'
    'Because I should be happy if you would accept.'
    'Accept what?'
    'Becoming my wife.'
    If there had been a plot, Gina was not in it, for she exclaimed with a nervous laugh:
    'Don't be silly!'
    'I'm serious.'
    'You'd marry me?
    'That's what I am suggesting.'
    'Me?'
    'You.'
    'You realize what sort of a girl I am?'
    'I think I know you as well as anybody else.'
    'In that case you're a brave man.'
    'What's your answer?'
    'My answer's that you're very kind, but that it's impossible.' There was a splash of sunlight on the table and it was on this that Jonas fastened his gaze, rather than on the young girl's face.
    'Why?'
    'Because.'
    'You don't want me?'
    'I didn't say that, Monsieur Jonas. You are certainly very decent. In fact you're the only man who never tried to take advantage of the situation. Even Ancel himself, though he's the father of one of my friends, took me into the shed in his backyard when I was only fifteen. I could name nearly all of them, one by one, and you would be amazed. To start with I wondered when you were going to pluck up courage.'
    'Do you think you couldn't be happy here?'
    Then she made her frankest reply:
    'It would be peaceful, at any rate.'
    'Well, that's something, isn't it?'
    'Yes, of course. Only supposing we didn't get on together? Better not say any more about it. I'm not the kind of girl to make a man like you happy.'
    'It's not me that counts.'
    'Who does then?'
    'You.'
    He was sincere. He was so overcome with tenderness while he was talking about this subject, that he didn't dare move from fear of allowing his emotion to break out.
    'Me and happiness . . .' she said bitterly, between her clenched teeth.
    'Let's say peace, as you just called it yourself.'
    She had glanced at him sharply.
    'Was it my mother who suggested it to you? I knew she'd been to see you, but. . .'
    'No. She only told me you were being offered a better job.'
    'My mother has always wanted to get me out of the way.'
    'Won't you think it over?'
    'What's the point?'
    'Wait at any rate until tomorrow before giving me a definite answer, will you?'
    'If you insist!'
     
    That day she had broken a plate while she was doing the washing up, and as had happened now, two years later, she had gone off forgetting to clean the stove.
    At about four o'clock in the afternoon, as usual, Jonas had gone for his cup of coffee at Le Bouc's and Fernand had watched him closely.
    'Is it true, what they're saying?'
    'What are they saying?'
    'That you are going to marry Gina.'
    'Who told you that?'
    'Louis, just now. He had a quarrel with Angèle over it.'
    'Why?'
    Le Bouc had looked uncomfortable. 'They don't have the same ideas.'
    'He's against it?'
    'I'll say!'
    'Why?'
    Louis had certainly given a reason, but Le Bouc did not pass it on.
    'You never can tell just what's going on in his head,' he replied evasively.
    'Is he angry?'
    'He talked about going and knocking your block off. That won't stop him doing what Angèle decides. It makes no difference him protesting, he's got no say in his house.'
    'And Gina?'
    'You must know what she said to you better than I do. The most difficult of all will be her brother.'
    'Why?'
    'I don't know. It's just a hunch. He's a strange lad, with ideas all his own.'
    'He doesn't like me?'
    'Apart from his sister he probably likes nobody. She's the only one who can stop him making a fool of himself. A month ago he wanted to join up in Indo-China.'
    'She didn't want him to?'
    'He's only a boy. He's never been anywhere. As soon as he got there he would be even more unhappy than he is