“What! do you repent already of being married?”
“No, certainly not; I only said that in jest. Oh! I am very happy; but what I mean is that a married man owes it to himself not to run wild like a bachelor. However, I am exceedingly happy.”
“I congratulate you. How does it happen that madame is not with you?”
“Oh! she is dining out with her mother, at a house where they couldn’t invite me, because I would have made thirteen at the table. I am going to call for her. But as it is a house where they dine very late, Armide told me not to hurry, not to come until between ten and eleven. That is why I came here to pass the time. But how is it with you, my dear Blémont? I thought that you never left your adored wife; everybody speaks of you as a pair of turtledoves.”
“Oh! turtledoves don’t always agree. We have had a little quarrel and I came to the theatre for distraction.”
“The deuce! really? you have had a quarrel? Well, that’s like me. I often have quarrels with Armide, but that doesn’t prevent me from being happy. They are little clouds which soon pass away.”
“And does your mother-in-law still weep all the time?”
“Oh! don’t speak of my mother-in-law! I admit that she is my nightmare; it is she who stirs up her daughter. I know well enough that she doesn’t do it from any bad motive; she is too noble for that. But when one doesn’t come up to the mark in a salutation or in any sort of ceremony, when one does not offer his hand quickly enough, why there is no end to the reproaches and complaints. However, I am very happy; although those devilish Girauds have already tried to make people think that I am a cuckold.”
“What! the Girauds have said——”
“That I am a cuckold. Yes, my friend, they have said that! Whereas, she is a woman of the most rigid principle; and moreover, a woman with whom a man can be perfectly at ease. One of those cold, marble women, you know. When you kiss them, it is exactly as if you didn’t kiss them; it produces the same effect.”