I could stand it no longer. I went to her and said:
“Where have you been to-day, madame?”
“Why, wherever I chose, monsieur. I believe that I am not in the habit of asking you where you go!”
“That is no argument, madame, and I have the right to ask you for an account of your actions.”
“Oho! a right! I had that right too, but when I undertook to exert it, it did not succeed!”
“I don’t know what you mean, madame. However, you do not answer my question.”
“I have been to dine with Madame Dorcelles; there was no mystery about it; I told the nurse, and I thought that you would call there for me.”
“You could not think that I would go to the house of a woman whom I do not like; and you must have known too that you would not please me by dining with this Madame Dorcelles, who has the reputation of being a flirt and not a respectable mother of a family.”
“Reputation! Was it Madame Ernest who told you that Laure was a flirt?”
“Madame Ernest never speaks ill of anyone.”