He amused her.
She let him see it, and at once he promised to himself, in his heroic frivolity, to finish worthily his happy life by the subjugation of this young woman whom he appreciated above every one else, and who evidently admired him.

He displayed, to capture her, the most learned stratagems.
But she escaped him very easily.
She yielded, two years later, to Robert Le Menil, who had desired her ardently, with all the warmth of his youth, with all the simplicity of his mind.

She said to herself: "I gave myself to him because he loved me." It was the truth.

The truth was, also, that a dumb yet powerful instinct had impelled her, and that she had obeyed the hidden impulse of her being.

But even this was not her real self; what awakened her nature at last was the fact that she believed in the sincerity of his sentiment.