“Mon Dieu! I am well aware, monsieur, that a husband thinks that he has done his duty when he has given his wife the bonnet and shawl that she wants; but for my part, I should prefer that you should have all the faults that you just mentioned, if you would be faithful to me.”
“And you reproach me with being unfaithful! you address such a reproach as that to me!”
“Do you dare to deny that you have been going to see your former neighbor, this Madame Ernest?”
“No, madame, I have never denied it; why should I deny anything when I have done nothing wrong?”
“Still, you have not told me of it, and but for that gentleman’s call, I should not have known it.”
“I have not told you of it because your absurd suspicions obliged me to keep it secret. I felt sure that you would discover something wrong in it; so that it was useless for me to tell you a thing which can hardly be said to concern you.”
“Ah! so it doesn’t concern me that you go to make love to other women! What a horrible thing to say!”
“Eugénie, you are perfectly absurd! I feel very sorry for you!”
“When one discovers the intrigues of these gentlemen, one is absurd. Will you say again that her lover is always there when you go there? It is a pity that he himself said that you waited for him a long time. Idiot! not to see why you go to his house when he isn’t there!”
“Oh! how patient a man must be, to listen to such nonsense!”