'You seem quite pleased about something to-night, my dear,' he said to his wife. 'Did you see what a beating I gave the old lady downstairs?'
Then as he observed Marthe taking a silk dress out of her wardrobe, he asked her with some surprise if she intended to go out in the morning. He had not heard anything of the conversation in the dining-room between his wife and the priest.
'Yes,' she replied, 'I have to go out. I have to meet Abbé Faujas at the church about a matter which I will tell you of.'
He stood motionless in front of her, and gazed at her with an expression of stupefaction, wondering if she were not really jesting with him. Then, without any appearance of displeasure, he said in his bantering fashion:
'Hallo! hallo! well I never expected that! So you've gone over to the priests now!'
[VIII]
The next morning Marthe began by calling on her mother, to whom she explained the pious undertaking which she was contemplating. She became almost angry when the old lady smilingly shook her head, and she gave her to understand that she considered her lacking in charity.
'It is one of Abbé Faujas's ideas, isn't it?' Félicité suddenly inquired.
'Yes,' Marthe replied in surprise: 'we have talked a good deal about it together. But how did you know?'