"Article 13, insubordination, ten francs!"
The girl from Bordeaux resumed her work. Madame Arnoux, through a sense of propriety, said nothing; but her brows contracted. Frederick murmured:
"Ha! you are very severe for a democrat!"
The other replied in a magisterial tone:
"Democracy is not the unbounded license of individualism. It is the equality of all belonging to the same community before the law, the distribution of work, order."
"You are forgetting humanity!" said Frederick.
Madame Arnoux took his arm. Sénécal, perhaps, offended by this mark of silent approbation, went away.
Frederick experienced an immense relief. Since morning he had been looking out for the opportunity to declare itself; now it had arrived. Besides, Madame Arnoux's spontaneous movements seemed to him to contain promises; and he asked her, as if on the pretext of warming their feet, to come up to her room. But, when he was seated close beside her, he began once more to feel embarrassed. He was at a loss for a starting-point. Sénécal, luckily, suggested an idea to his mind.
"Nothing could be more stupid," said he, "than this punishment!"
Madame Arnoux replied: "There are certain severe measures which are indispensable!"