"'Tis not worth while."
"Why?"
She looked him straight in the face without saying a word, then stretched out her hand, took down the little silver chest from the mantelpiece, and handed him a bill which was spread open.
Arnoux coloured up to his ears, and his swollen and distorted features betrayed his confusion.
"But," he said in faltering tones, "what does this prove?"
"Ah!" she said, with a peculiar ring in her voice, in which sorrow and irony were blended. "Ah!"
Arnoux held the bill in his hands, and turned it round without removing his eyes from it, as if he were going to find in it the solution of a great problem.
"Ah! yes, yes; I remember," said he at length. "'Twas a commission. You ought to know about that matter, Frederick." Frederick remained silent. "A commission that Père Oudry entrusted to me."
"And for whom?"
"For his mistress."