"Mistaken ... tra-la-la! ... and I know her! ... All I have to do is to see you, my poor Teddy, to understand ... absolutely ... in every little detail ... the woman who makes you so ... So—adieu!"
"It is not as tragic as all that," he said, laughing, but giving his hand.
"Adieu! ... adieu!"
"I may come back ... when I am divorced?"
"That will never happen!" she persisted, vindictively. "She has tamed you ... you are a domestic animal ... a house pet ... like the cat and the poodle dog!"
"Au revoir, Emma," he said, refusing to be irritated.
"Not good-by!" She took up a thread, broke it with a vicious jerk, and let the ends float away. "Victorine, depêche-toi donc!"
Beecher, who had started with the intention of extracting a legitimate revenge, had received little satisfaction from his two interviews. Nevertheless, he was not so naïve as to reject Emma Fornez's advice. He went directly to Mrs. Craig Fontaine's box. Louise, as though she had waited impatiently his coming, started at once from her chair, meeting him in the privacy of the antechamber. He was struck at once by the constrained tensity of her glance.
"You are in the Gunthers' box," she said, directly the first greetings were over. "Where is Bruce? Why didn't he come with you?"
"We separated. I went behind to see Madame Fornez..." he said lamely.