“Yes.”
“You said you only went in carriages.”
“Yes, my dear, but to get carriages, you have to go and—”
“Pooh! I dare say Braschon was in the carriage, or the parlor was—one or the other is equally probable.”
“You won’t listen,” exclaims Adolphe, who thinks that a long story will lull Caroline’s suspicions.
“I’ve listened too much already. You’ve been lying for the last hour, worse than a drummer.”
“Well, I’ll say nothing more.”
“I know enough. I know all I wanted to know. You say you’ve seen lawyers, notaries, bankers: now you haven’t seen one of them! Suppose I were to go to-morrow to see Madame de Fischtaminel, do you know what she would say?”
Here, Caroline watches Adolphe closely: but Adolphe affects a delusive calmness, in the middle of which Caroline throws out her line to fish up a clue.
“Why, she would say that she had had the pleasure of seeing you! How wretched we poor creatures are! We never know what you are doing: here we are stuck, chained at home, while you are off at your business! Fine business, truly! If I were in your place, I would invent business a little bit better put together than yours! Ah, you set us a worthy example! They say women are perverse. Who perverted them?”