XX
A NEWLY MARRIED PAIR
Adolphine left the piano and sat down beside her sister.
"I am sure that you are annoyed, Fanny, because your husband doesn't come home."
"I? Mon Dieu! I wasn't thinking about him at all. If he stays away, it is probably because he has business to attend to. You don't understand business, you see, Adolphine; you don't know that, if you want to make a lot of money, you must sometimes deprive yourself of a little pleasure."
"No, it's true, I don't understand money matters; but I thought that two people just married could not be happy apart, that they must be horribly bored when they're not together."
"Oh! my dear girl, there's reason in everything. And then, we have plenty of time to be together."
"Still, when you marry for love—and Monsieur Monléard certainly seemed to be in love with you—— Is that all over already?"
"Why—no—but when two people are once married, they're no longer like two lovers. You'll find that out some day, my little sister! I still call you little, although you're taller than I."
"Ah! I know that I could never love as placidly as you do!—I was afraid that your husband might be angry with you on account of that duel."
"Auguste has too much good sense and breeding to charge me with the folly and extravagance of another, as a crime. It's not my fault that another man was in love with me!"