“I shall go nowhere else with you, monsieur; then you cannot say that I shame you or humiliate you.”
“You will do well, madame. It is much better not to go with your husband than to behave as you did this evening.”
“From the tone in which you speak to me, monsieur, I see who the people are whom you have just left! You are profiting by their advice!”
Those words put the finishing touch to my exasperation. I rushed from the salon and locked myself into the bedroom.
XIV
MONSIEUR DULAC
Frequent disputes and rare reconciliations—so that was to be our life thenceforth. After Leberger’s ball, we passed a whole month without speaking to each other. That month seemed very long to me; I sighed for my bachelor days, but even more for the early months of our married life.
We spoke at last, but not with the same effusion of sentiment as before. On the slightest pretext my wife became excited and lost her temper. When I argued with her, she had hysterical attacks and shrieked at the top of her voice. When we were first married, if we had a little discussion, she wept, but she never shrieked and she was never hysterical.
My daughter was three years old and she had grown to be a lovely creature; her features were as beautiful as her mother’s, but she never sulked; she had already begun to talk and to argue with me. I was passionately fond of my little Henriette; when I was at odds with her mother, I would take my daughter in my arms, cover her with kisses, and make up to myself with her for the caresses which I no longer bestowed upon Eugénie.
“You will always love me, won’t you?” I would say to Henriette; and when her sweet voice answered: “Yes, papa, always,” my heart experienced a thrill of well-being which often made me forget my quarrels with my wife.
When winter brought back the time of balls and parties, Leberger brought Monsieur Dulac to our house; he was a tall, dark young fellow, very good-looking, and with a somewhat conceited manner; but it is not safe to trust to the manners that a person displays in society: to know people well one must see them in private. However, Monsieur Dulac was well-bred and very agreeable; he was said to be an excellent musician; and he had an independent fortune; those recommendations were quite sufficient to cause him to be popular in society.