"I was in the room during your conversation with Mme. de Bricourt; and, I beg your pardon if I am mistaken, but I understood from your remarks that it was your intention to repeat these foolish scandals to M. Frager."
"Well! what then?" she replied scornfully indifferent.
M. Descoutures seemed to grow more and more embarrassed. He loosened his cravat, that appeared to be strangling him. His eyes seemed to be starting from their sockets.
He continued, however: "But you must not do any thing to open his eyes. Your heart must show you that ignorance is better than the anguish of certainty or even suspicion. In your blind, mistaken generosity, you would plunge a whole family into the bitterest sorrow and despair."
Poor, brave little gentleman! He had spoken quickly, and only stopped as he thought of Laviguerie overwhelmed by this scandal about his favorite daughter. Corinne gazed at him in amazement, and then, struck by the absurdity of the situation, laughed and turned to leave the room. M. Descoutures rose to the occasion. Seizing her by the arm, he continued: "To begin with, you must not leave this room." Corinne drew herself to her full height and said with the greatest indignation: "Do you dare to lay hands on me! You must be insane!" She tried to leave the room, but the little man held her fast. "I am not insane now, but I was the day I married you, you cruel, wicked woman! I have been quiet for twenty years, submitting to you and your unreasonable demands. I did not care so much when you only wounded me; but now you are planning to mortally injure the friends I love most on earth, and I swear you shall not do it. I see through your plots, and if you attempt to resist me, and carry them out, by God! I will kill you!"
M. Descoutures stood erect before her, his arms crossed. Corinne really was afraid of him. She sank into a chair. M. Descoutures pulled the bell. When the servant answered the summons, he said: "Madame Descoutures is very much indisposed. She will keep her room for a few days, and will see no callers or friends. She will not be at home to any one. Do you understand?"
The servant looked at Madame Descoutures for a ratification of the order, but he only met her gaze of stony horror. He felt vaguely that some unusual scene was taking place; that the authority in the house was changing hands.
When he had disappeared, M. Descoutures turned to his wife, saying: "Now go to your room, and do not dare to leave it."
She rose and went to her room, his threat still ringing in her ears, "By God! I will murder you!" Her anger and baffled fury were at a white heat by this time. She charged Odette with being the cause of all this humiliation, and her affection for her was not increased by this thought. And she was balked of her revenge! At this point the good soul wept with rage. She spent an hour trying to devise some means to circumvent her husband. A Hindoo proverb says, "If you imprison a woman, keep watch over the key-hole." Corinne could write. She could use that cowardly weapon—an anonymous letter.