“Ah! that will be very kind of you. Adieu, my dear Henri. Come, don’t be angry any more and don’t forget what you have just promised.”
“No, I——”
The words died out on my lips, for I caught sight of my wife within two yards of us, pale and trembling, and gazing directly at us. And at that moment, Lucile had offered me her hand as she bade me good-bye, and I, overjoyed because she was about to leave me, was shaking hands with her in the friendliest way! Eugénie had seen all that, and Lucile, noticing the sudden change in my features, turned, glanced at my wife, smiled a mocking smile, and walked away, bidding me adieu again in a most unceremonious fashion. Ah! I did not know what I would do to her!
I walked toward my wife. My manner was certainly as embarrassed as if I were guilty.
“So here you are. I was talking with a lady whom I had just met.”
“Yes, I saw that lady, and I heard her too. What is the use, monsieur, of making an appointment with me, of bringing me here to witness such things?”
“Well, upon my word! Now you are going to discover something wrong in this; but I swear——”
“Oh! it costs you nothing to swear! Who is that woman? Is it your former neighbor, Madame Ernest?”
“Oh! no indeed! It’s a woman whom I—whom I knew before I was married.”
“Ah! one of your former mistresses, I suppose.”