"I am ignorant of the circumstances. It was my father-in-law, whom nothing escapes, who discovered it. At first I did not believe it, but he soon convinced me. The girl lived in the rue des Jardins for a while, now in Saint George's street."
"And this offspring of which you spoke?"
"Did you not understand me?"
Muse smiled and did not repeat her question, she only added:--
"He played so well the rôle of chaste Joseph that no one would have suspected him of this."
"Humbug! His character now appears to me in a new light. I must commence to study him again; until now I was all astray."
"I," replied Muse, "was convinced that he was ice toward women. At last I see that he is vulnerable." She was so impatient to repeat this scandal to her mother that she dismissed Henri.
"At present," said she, after finishing her story, "this man seems to me more inexplicable than ever. A common girl succeeds where I have failed."
"He loves; that explains all," said her mother.
"He loves! That is no reason; it is no excuse. I am furious, now that I see that his coldness was only assumed so as not to marry me."