CHAPTER XX.
GOLD.
We must now return to the interior of the room. Beausire was much surprised to see Oliva lock the door, and still more so not to see his adversary. He began to feel triumphant, for if he was hiding from him he must, he thought, be afraid of him. He therefore began to search for him; but Oliva talked so loud and fast that he advanced towards her to try and stop her, but was received with a box on the ear, which he returned in kind. Oliva replied by throwing a china vase at his head, and his answer was a blow with a cane. She, furious, flew at him and seized him by the throat, and he, trying to free himself, tore her dress.
Then, with a cry, she pushed him from her with such force that he fell in the middle of the room.
He began to get tired of this, so he said, without commencing another attack, “You are a wicked creature; you ruin me.”
“On the contrary, it is you who ruin me.”
“Oh, I ruin her!—she who has nothing!”
“Say that I have nothing now, say that you have eaten, and drank, and played away all that I had.”
“You reproach me with my poverty.”
“Yes, for it comes from your vices.”
“Do not talk of vices; it only remained for you to take a lover.”