"Do, by all means. But pray don't make such a fuss about it. I abhor a noise."
"Very well, then, madame. I tell you very plainly, though very quietly, that it is a woman's duty to attend to the affairs of her household, and you do not pay the slightest attention to yours. If it were not for me, I don't know what would become of the house."
"That is the steward's business, it seems to me. But you have energy enough for two, and you've got to expend it upon something."
"I tell you, again, madame, very quietly, understand, that I anticipated a very different and very delightful life. I had deferred exploring several of the most interesting countries until after my marriage, saying to myself, 'Instead of exploring them alone, I shall then have a charming and congenial companion; fatigue, adventures, even dangers,—we will share them all courageously together.'"
"Great Heavens!" murmured Florence, lifting her beautiful eyes heavenward, "he admits such an atrocious thing as that."
"'What happiness it will be,' I said to myself," continued M. de Luceval, quite carried away by the bitterness of his regret,—"'what happiness it will be to visit such extremely interesting countries as Egypt—'"
"Egypt!"
"Turkey—"
"Mon Dieu! Turkey!"
"And if you had been the woman I so fondly dreamed, we might even have pushed on to the Caucasus."