A sudden light had dawned upon him, and he now understood and could picture everything.

So this was why she had not been seen at the hospital, where little Madame Desagneaux was always asking for her.

Standing motionless, his heart upset, Pierre fell into a deep reverie, reflecting on the life led by this woman whom he knew, that torturing conjugal life in Paris between a fierce mother-in-law and an unworthy husband, and then those three days of complete liberty spent at Lourdes, that brief bonfire of passion to which she had hastened under the sacrilegious pretext of serving the divinity.
Tears whose cause he could not even explain, tears that ascended from the very depths of his being, from his own voluntary chastity, welled into his eyes amidst the feeling of intense sorrow which came over him.
"Well, are you ready ?" joyously called M.de Guersaint as he came back, with his grey jacket buttoned up and his hands gloved.
"Yes, yes, let us go," replied Pierre, turning aside and pretending to look for his hat so that he might wipe his eyes.
Then they went out, and on crossing the threshold heard on their left hand an unctuous voice which they recognised; it was that of M.Vigneron, who was loudly repeating the morning prayers.

A moment afterwards came a meeting which interested them.

They were walking down the passage when they were passed by a middle-aged, thick-set, sturdy-looking gentleman, wearing carefully trimmed whiskers.