“She has her reasons for that.”
“For heaven’s sake, let us drop Madame Ernest, whom I almost never see.”
“Oh! that is a matter of indifference to me now.”
“I can well believe it; you have other things to occupy your mind.”
“What do you mean by that, monsieur?”
“If you should find me escorting a woman home as I just now found you with Monsieur Dulac, I should like to know what you would say?”
“Mon Dieu! do you mean to say that you are jealous, you, monsieur, who considered it so absurd that I should be?”
“Without being jealous, madame, I may look to it that you do not expose yourself to malicious gossip.”
“Oh! I am obliged to you, monsieur, but I am old enough to know how to behave.”
“You are becoming most peculiar, Eugénie; I don’t know whose advice you are following, but I cannot believe that you act thus of your own accord; I doubt, however, whether this new method of treating me will make either of us happy. Upon my word, I do not recognize you.”