“Mon Dieu! I have no idea; she had been boring me and annoying me for ten minutes; I would have promised her all the treasures of the Indies to get rid of her.”
“But why did she hold your hand?”
“Because it is the habit of all those women; they can’t say a word to you without taking your arm or your hand.”
“Is she a prostitute then?”
“No, she is a—a kept woman.”
“She has a very insolent manner, at all events.”
At last I induced Eugénie to go in, and we were shown to a private room. I wrote my order, for after all, I myself realized that I had not dined. The waiter left the room, whispering to me in an undertone:
“Monsieur will ring when he wants the dinner served.”
He evidently misunderstood the state of affairs. Husbands and wives are not in the habit of dining in private rooms.
Madame took a seat in the corner, a long way from the table. She rested her head on one of her hands. She had ceased to weep, but she did not look at me. How amusing it would be, if she acted like that all the time that we were dining, or that I was dining! So this was the little spree to which I had looked forward so eagerly! Man proposes and woman disposes.