“But I could not send him away.”
“When a woman desires it she can always make a man understand that his visit is inopportune, inconvenient, and that he must shorten it if possible.”
“You teach me how I can do so.”
“And then you chatted over your old love, and the cruel rupture of your separation.”
“We only spoke of music and theatres.”
“We may believe that. But I am going out to see if I can discover whether the marquis is still in Florence, and how long he intends to stay. And in the meantime, if he is barefaced enough to call here, I beg you will not receive him. This I demand and desire.”
“No command is necessary; I know my duty.”
“Not always. A visit of an hour in the box of a woman to whom the man was once engaged is an offence to her husband.”
She, who was completely innocent, felt herself really offended by all the suspicions of her husband, and began to beat her foot on the carpet and to torture a volume of Coppée lying on the table with a paper knife.