"Madame does not accept me as a friend," he observed, drily, "so I have no desire to stay a moment more than I'm obliged."
"A friend? Who has never done me anything but harm!"
"Are we to discuss all that again?" he replied. "You have yourself admitted, more than once, that you owed much to me, and yet you compelled me by your own conduct reluctantly to withdraw what I had given."
"You do well to remind me!" returned Gabrielle, swelling with contempt. "Your terms of peace were that your brother's wife was to become your mistress! You are right to stand. Say what you have to say, and quickly."
"I have, in the first place, to point out to Madame la Marquise the result of her present course of action. Does a wife, think you, gain in the world's esteem by constantly insulting her husband?"
"I have never insulted my husband."
"Not by making a fool of him before all his class--by treating him like an ill-bred child, that may not be trusted? By driving him from beneath the roof which should be his?"
"What?" ejaculated Gabrielle, amazed.
"That is what you have done, and, believe me, the world will be against you, however plausible a tale you may invent."
"Is he going away?" faltered the marquise, beginning to see the position in another light.