"Well, then, on my return, I shall come and inquire if your bachelors' breakfast has been amusing."
"Adieu, Clémence!"
"Adieu, dear! We shall soon meet again. I leave you a clear house, and wish you may be as merry as possible. Be very gay and lively, mind."
Having cordially shaken her husband's hand, Clémence went out of one door as M. de Lucenay entered by another.
"She wished me to be as merry as possible, and bade me be gay! In the word adieu, in that last cry of my soul in its agony, in that word of complete and eternal separation, she has understood that we should meet again soon,—this evening,—and leaves me tranquilly, and with a smile! It does honour to my dissimulation. By heaven, I did not think that I was so good an actor! But here is Lucenay."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BACHELORS' BREAKFAST.
M. de Lucenay came into the room.