The mother was interrupted by a loud noise in the reception room; the dog barked and the little girl appeared at the door of the salon, crying:
“My little brother just upset the waiter with the glasses on it.”
This incident turned the whole household topsy-turvy: the mother ran to her broken glasses; the father left his lamps to try to catch his son; and little Alexandre ran between everybody’s legs and finally crawled under a sofa, sticking his tongue out at his father.
The duet came to an end amid this uproar; indeed the singers had continued to sing after the other guests had ceased to pay any heed to them. So the Montausols left the piano, in evident ill humor. They took seats behind me, saying to each other:
“They won’t catch me singing at their house again!”
“I should think not. These people don’t know what good music is.”
“No, they must always have something new! We will go away after the punch.”
“Yes, if there is any.”
I left the salon and walked into the bedroom. I saw Montdidier talking with several men. I could detect nothing unusual in his face, but he was talking earnestly. I drew near with apparent indifference. Indeed, I was at liberty to listen with the rest; there was no secrecy about it.
“Yes, messieurs,” said Montdidier, “I arrived just as the cab tipped over. My wife was coming from her aunt’s and was on her way here. But the one who had the worst fright of all was poor Bélan. He was passing the cab, so it seems, when the hind wheel came off; when he saw the cab toppling over in his direction, he thought that he was a dead man; and as the window in the door was open, he jumped through into the cab in order not to be crushed. He is very small, you know. My wife told me that he came in as nimbly as a monkey. Then, finding that the cab didn’t move, he opened the door and escaped. My wife is convinced that, in his excitement, he did not recognize her; and that is probably true, or else he would at least have offered his hand to help her out of the cab. Ha! ha! ha! ha! Poor Bélan! I will have a good laugh at him when I see him!”