I went on my way, spoken to by them all, seized by the arm, irritated, revolted and disgusted. Suddenly I saw three of them running as if they were terrified, flinging a quick phrase to the others as they ran. And the others began to run too, an open flight, bunching their clothes together so that they could run the faster. They were making a roundup of prostitutes that night.
Suddenly I felt an arm under mine, while a terrified voice murmured in my ear: “Save me, sir, save me, don’t leave me.”
I looked at the girl. She was not yet twenty, although already fading. “Stay with me,” I said to her. “Oh, thank you,” she murmured.
We reached the line of police. It opened to let me pass.
And I proceeded down the Rue Drouot.
My companion asked:
“Will you come home with me?”
“No.”
“Why not? You have done me a very great service that I shan’t forget.”
To get rid of her, I answered:
“Because I’m married.”
“What does that matter?”
“Well, my child, that’s enough. I’ve pulled you out of a hole. Leave me alone now.”
The street was deserted and dark, really sinister. And this woman clinging to my arm added to the frightful feeling of sadness that had overwhelmed me. She tried to embrace me. I recoiled in horror, and said harshly:
“Be off, and shut your mouth.”
She retreated in something like anger, then abruptly began to sob. I stood bewildered, filled with pity, not understanding:
“Come, what’s the matter with you?”
She murmured between her tears:
“It’s not very pleasant, if you only knew.”
“What isn’t?”
“The life I live.”
“Why did you choose it?”
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“Then whose fault was it?”
“I know whose it was!”
I felt a sudden interest in this abandoned creature.
“Won’t you tell me about yourself?” I asked her.
She told me.
“I was sixteen years old, I was in service at Yvetot, with M. Lerable, a seedsman. My parents were dead. I had no one; I knew quite well that my master looked at me strangely and tickled my cheeks; but I didn’t think about it much. I knew a few things, of course. You get pretty shrewd in the country; but M. Lerable was a pious old thing who went to Mass every Sunday. I would never have believed him capable of it.
“Then one day he wanted to make up to me in my kitchen. I resisted him. He went off.
“There was a grocer opposite us, M. Dutan, who had a very agreeable assistant; so agreeable that I let him get round me. That happens to everybody, doesn’t it? So I used to leave the door open in the evenings, and he used to come and see me.
“And then one night M. Lerable heard a noise. He came upstairs and found Antoine and tried to kill him. They fought with chairs and the water jug and everything. I had seized my bit of clothes and I rushed into the street. Off I went.
“I was frightened, scared stiff. I got dressed under a doorway. Then I began to walk straight on. I was sure there had been someone killed and that the police were looking for me already. I reached the high road to Rouen. I thought to myself that at Rouen I could hide myself quite safely.
“It was too dark to see the ditches and I heard dogs barking in the farms. You don’t know what you hear at night. Birds screaming like a man who’s having his throat cut, beasts that yelp and beasts that wheeze, and all sorts of things that you don’t understand. I went all over gooseflesh. I crossed myself at every sound. You’ve no idea what it is that’s scaring you so. When it grew light, I thought of the police again and began to run. Then I calmed down.
“I felt hungry too, in spite of my anxiety; but I hadn’t anything, not a ha’penny. I’d forgotten my money, everything belonging to me in the world, eighteen francs.
“So I had to walk with a complaining stomach. It was warm. The sun scorched me. Noon passed. I went on walking.
“Suddenly I heard horses behind me. I turned round. The police! My blood ran cold; I thought I should fall; but I kept myself up. They caught up to me. They looked at me. One of them, the older, said:
“ ‘Good afternoon, miss.’
“ ‘Good afternoon, sir.’
“ ‘Where are you off like this?’
“ ‘I’m going to Rouen, to service in a situation I’ve been offered.’
“ ‘Like this, on your two feet?’
“ ‘Yes, like this.’
“My heart was beating so that I could hardly speak. I was saying to myself: ‘They’ll take me.’ And my legs itched to run. But they would have caught me up in a minute, you see.
“The old one began again:
“ ‘We’ll jog along together as far as Barantin, miss, since we’re all going the same way.’
“ ‘Gladly, sir.’
“So we fell to talking. I made myself as agreeable as I knew how, you may be sure, so agreeable that they thought things that weren’t true. And then, as I was walking through a wood, the old one said:
“ ‘What do you say if we go and lie down a bit on the moss?’
“I answered without stopping to think:
“ ‘Yes, if you like.’
“Then he dismounted, gave his horse to the other, and off we both went into the wood.
“There was no chance of saying no. What would you have done in my place? He took what he wanted; then he said: ‘We mustn’t forget the other fellow.’ And he went back to hold the horses, while the other one rejoined me. I was so ashamed of it that I could have cried. But I daren’t resist, you see.
“So we went on again. I had nothing more to say. I was too sad at heart. And then I was so hungry I couldn’t walk any further. All the same, they offered me a glass of wine in a village,
