"You must understand that it upsets me to see you again. What good does it do you? We are dead to each other. Why should you want to pester me like this?"
"That's just what I wanted to know, whether we are dead to each other...."
"Dead, dead, quite dead!" she cried, vehemently.
He laughed:
"Come, don't be so theatrical. You can understand that I was curious to sec you again and talk to you. I used to see you in the street, in your carriage, on the Jetée; and I was pleased to find you looking so well, so smart, so happy and so handsome. You know that good-looking women are my great hobby. You are much better-looking than you used to be when you were my wife. If you had been then what you are now, I should never have allowed you to divorce me.... Come, don't be a child. No one knows here. I think it damned jolly to meet you here, to have a good old yarn with you and to have you leaning on my arm. Take my arm. Don't make a fuss and I'll take you where you want to go. Where shall we find Mrs. Uxeley? Introduce me ... as a friend from Holland...."
"Rudolph...."
"Oh, I insist: don't bother! There's nothing in it! It amuses me and it's no end of a lark to walk about with one's divorced wife at a ball at Nice. A delightful town, isn't it? I go to Monte Carlo every day and I've been damned lucky. Won three thousand francs yesterday. Will you come with me one day?"
"You're mad?"
"I'm not mad at all. I want to enjoy myself. And I'm proud to have you on my arm."
She withdrew her arm: