Villette

On May 1, M. Paul takes 20 students and four teachers on a picnic he promised them. Lucy attends, though he earlier told her she was not invited. It is a picturesque spring day in the country, and the ladies enjoy a luxurious breakfast at a nearby farmhouse. They are all dressed in new frocks and straw hats, and M. Paul comments on the decadence of Lucy’s, though hers is no different from the others. Ginevra attempts to walk close to M. Paul and he keeps shifting his position to move away from her. M. Paul tells them all a story, and Lucy is captivated by his intellect: “[H]is mind was indeed my library, and whenever it was opened to me, I entered bliss” (491).

After the meal is finished, Lucy reads aloud to M. Paul, though she does not care for the story. He asks her if she would miss him if he were to go on a long journey. Lucy says that she cannot know how she might react but that she would not know how to live in his absence. She begins to cry. The outing is a great success and M. Paul is kind and even-tempered for its duration.