“Ah! but it is not always so serious as it is to-day.—You must know that I am on the best of terms with Madame de Montdidier?”
“Faith, no, I didn’t know it.”
“What! you didn’t know that? A rake like you—a man after my own heart!”
“You do me too much honor.”
“To be sure, I haven’t mentioned it to anybody, for I am discretion itself; but such things are always noticed; ordinarily the husband is the only person who does not detect them.”
“Has he detected something this time?”
“Listen: Montdidier is a quick-tempered man, brutal even, so his wife says; and more than that, horribly jealous.”
“All this does not prevent him from being——”
“No, such things never do prevent it; on the contrary, they make one want—However, you will see that it necessitated extra precaution and prudence. He is not one of the husbands who go half-way to meet you, who constantly ask you to act as their wife’s escort, to go with her to the play or to walk; one of those husbands, in short, who seem to say to you: ‘Make me a cuckold; I should like it.’”