"I am satisfied with it; but you shan't have my custom, I tell you!"
Then he walked across the studio, passed close to Madame Thierry and saw her, put his hand to the brim of his hat, saying in a surly tone: "Your servant, madame!" returned to Marcel, laughed in his face for no apparent cause, like a crazy man, and at last strode toward the door, frantic because he could find nothing to say to satisfy his thirst for revenge, without sacrificing the good opinion of his conduct which he wished his fiancée to retain.
Marcel, seeing his agitation, detained him.
"Come, come, uncle," he said, "we must find out where we are! Has the Comtesse d'Estrelle obtained our forgiveness, or must I sell my office to pay for the damage?"
"The Comtesse d'Estrelle," replied the old man, "is a judicious person, who knows how to tell the difference between people without brains and a man of sound sense. You will see the proof of it some day or other."
Madame Thierry, who could not endure her brother-in-law's overbearing manner, and who fancied that he meant to defy her, rose to go up to her room. Antoine bowed very slightly and added:
"I didn't say that for your benefit, Madame André. I have nothing to say to you."
"Nor I to you," retorted the widow, in a tone whose disdainful bitterness she strove in vain to stifle, as a matter of prudence.
And with a courtesy to Monsieur Antoine she withdrew.
Julien chafed at his bit in silence, incapable of humiliating himself by apologies, and Marcel followed with a keen glance the horticulturist's awkward and excited movements.