A Little in Love by Susan E. Fletcher

Author:Susan E. Fletcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

I wanted to walk with him all the time. But also, I didn’t want him to see too much of me and get bored, or to think with a sigh, There she is again … I wanted to be a surprise to him. A chance meeting. A happy coincidence that made him say, Ah! It’s good to see you again!

I told myself, Be casual, Eponine. Don’t let yourself be seen for a while.

Give him a chance to miss you.

I busied myself elsewhere for three whole weeks. I tried my hardest. But in the end, I couldn’t stay away. One bright July day I saw him walking southwest, away from the Seine. Not the Café Musain? So where?

I followed him farther into the quarter called Saint-Germain. This was where the university was, and there were lots of cafés and bars here too. There was a fiddler busking on a street corner and I saw Marius pause and give him a coin. He said, “You play very well.”

He kept walking. He crossed the boulevard Saint-Germain and turned left. Ahead of us there were tall iron gates, wide open, and beyond them I could see more greenery than I’d seen in eight months of living in Paris. The grassy lawn was huge. The trees were emerald green. Flower beds were like rainbows with all the colors in them.

Marius walked through those gates and into the garden.

I stopped a passerby. “Monsieur? Excusez-moi? What’s this place called?”

He answered as if I was an idiot. “Why, these are Les Jardins du Luxembourg!” He walked away, shaking his head.

Les Jardins du Luxembourg! I’d heard of them. They were the elegant gardens that surrounded Le Palais du Luxembourg itself and it was here that ladies strolled with their tiny dogs, where men walked with their pipes and smart conversations. Paris’s garden, I thought. Wouldn’t it be a lovely place to bump into him? To spend a little time?

I smoothed my hair and hurried after him, into the garden. Inside, it was even more beautiful—with the Palais’ golden columns and its fountains sparkling in the sun, and the shady promenades beneath the line of trees … It suited him.

Marius sat down on a wooden bench, partly shaded. I sat down on another bench a little distance from him. He took a book from his pocket, crossed his left leg over his right leg, and started to read.

He looked so peaceful that I couldn’t go to him. I just watched him. I wondered what I might say to him, how to start a conversation—and I imagined his answers, in my head. Only when the shadows lengthened did he stand up and fold his book away. He walked quickly as if following somebody, like I was following him. But out on the boulevard Saint-Germain, he looked from left to right and scratched his head. Whoever he’d been following was gone.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.