Do you
know, during the war, I thought (when I thought of it), 'If the Revins
factories are destroyed it won't be I who'll start them again. I won't
take up that hard mountain life any more. If they're destroyed, it's too
discouraging, so let them lie!' But now I don't feel discouraged at
all. I've new ideas, bigger ones. I'm older, I'm going to be richer. And
then, since they're partly knocked down I'll rebuild them in a better
way. And it's not only that--See!" He was carried away by his resolves,
shaken by excitement, and pulling out his note-book he tilted it this
way and that under the starlight, but he could not read it, and all the
stars in that sky were no use to him. He struck a match and held the
feeble flame under that heavenly magnificence, and a puff of wind
blew it out.
"But I don't need to see!" he exclaimed, and pointing into the night he
continued to unfold his plans, to build in the unmeaning darkness,
which, to his eyes, was mountain valleys where new factories arose,
mountain slopes whose sides were to be quarried for their stony ribs,
rivers to move power-stations, railways to Paris and to Brussels. As she
followed his finger her eyes lit upon the stars instead, and now he
said, "There, there!" pointing to Orion, and now "Here, here!" lighting
upon Aldebrande.
As she followed his finger her thoughts were on their own paths,
thinking, "This is Julien as he will be, not as I have known him.
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