"Well, I couldn't go into detail and tell you that—"
He stopped, asking himself whether the time had come to break decisively with her, but he remembered that he wanted her aid in getting information about Docre.
"That what? Tell me."
He shook his head, hesitating, not to tell her a lie, but to insult and humiliate her.
"Well," he went on, "since you force me to do it, I will confess, at whatever cost, that I have had a mistress for several years—I add that our relations are now purely amical—"
"Very well," she interrupted, "your family reasons are sufficient."
"And then," he pursued, in a lower tone, "if you wish to know all, well—I have a child by her."
"A child! Oh, you poor dear." She rose. "Then there is nothing for me to do but withdraw."
But he seized her hands, and, at the same time satisfied with the success of his deception and ashamed of his brutality, he begged her to stay awhile. She refused. Then he drew her to him, kissed her hair, and cajoled her. Her troubled eyes looked deep into his.
"Ah, then!" she said. "No, let me undress."