One of the women who had witnessed the adventure with the bull came in, holding in her hand the lawyer’s gold chain.
“I believe this belongs to you, M’m,” she said hesitatingly.
Adeline looked first at the woman and then at her husband, who stared at the chain with wide-open eyes.
“No, it belongs to your master,” she said, taking the proffered chain. “Thank you! Your master will give you something for finding it.”
He was sitting there, pale and motionless.
“I have no money, ask my wife to give you something,” he said, taking the necklet.
Adeline took a crown out of her big purse and handed it to the woman, who went away, apparently without understanding the scene.
“You might have spared me this humiliation!” he said, and his voice plainly betrayed the pain he felt.
“Are you not man enough to take the responsibility for your words and actions on your own shoulders? Are you ashamed to wear a present I gave you, while you expect me to wear yours? You’re a coward! And you imagine yourself to be a man!”
Henceforth the poor lawyer had no peace. Wherever he went, he met grinning faces, and farm-labourers and maid-servants from the safe retreat of sheltered nooks, shouted “the bull! the bull!” whenever he went past.