Would I have the right to bring trouble into her life?
To wrong one woman should seem enough for one lifetime!" At that instant Rosalie, who had been on the outskirts of the crowd, moved into his line of vision.

The glare from the lights fell on her face as she stood by her father's chair, looking curiously at the quack-doctor who, having sold many bottles of his medicines, noy picked up a guitar and began singing an old dialect chanson of Saintonge: "Voici, the day has come When Rosette leaves her home! With fear she walks in the sun, For Raoul is ninety year, And she not twenty-one.
La petit' Rosette, She is not twenty-one.
"He takes her by the hand, And to the church they go; By parents 'twas well meant, But is Rosette content?
'Tis gold and ninety year She walks in the sun with fear, La petit' Rosette, Not twenty-one as yet!" Charley's eyes, which had watched her these months past, noted the deepening colour of the face, the glow in the eyes, the glances of keen but agitated interest towards the singer.

He could not translate her looks; and she, on her part, had she been compelled to do so, could only have set down a confusion of sensations.
In Rosette she saw herself, Rosalie Evanturel; in the man "de quatre-vingt-dix ans," who was to marry this Rosette of Saintonge, she saw M.Rossignol.Disconcerting pictures of a possible life with the Seigneur flitted before her mind.

She beheld herself, young, fresh-cheeked, with life beating high and all the impulses of youth panting to use, sitting at the head of the seigneury table.

She saw herself in the great pew at Mass, stiff with dignity, old in the way of manorial pride--all laughter dead in her, all spring-time joy overshadowed by the grave decorum of the Manor, all the imagination of her dreaming spirit chilled by the presence of age, however kindly and quaint and cheerful.
She shuddered, and dropped her eyes upon the ground, as, to the laughter and giggling of old and young gathered round the wagon, the medicine-man sang: "He takes her by the hand, And to her chamber fair--" Then, suddenly turning, she vanished into the night, followed by the feeble inquiry of her father's eyes, the anxious look in Charley's.
Charley could not read her tale.