Chamoureau repeated to his wife all that Freluchon had told him concerning Edmond’s new love-affair. Thélénie listened attentively; she tried to remain calm; to avoid tearing her lace; and she rejoined with apparent tranquillity:
“So these women who live at Chelles are known to you?”
“Yes, my dear love; it was through me that they bought Monsieur Courtivaux’s house—for twenty thousand francs, as I remember.”
“What sort of women are they?”
“Madame Dalmont, the one who bought the house, is a widow, some twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, with an interesting, but sad face; of moderate means, she told me herself. Her young friend, the one Monsieur Edmond is so much in love with, must be about sixteen or seventeen—she’s an orphan, I believe—but such a pretty face! lovely fair hair, blue eyes——”
“Enough, monsieur! you have extolled this surprising beauty too much already! I shall end by thinking that you are in love with her too!”
“Ah! madame, you know very well that you alone, whose unapproachable charms——”
“And Monsieur Edmond has hired a house at Chelles? he lives there now?”
“Yes, in order to be near those ladies.”
“At whose house he visits?”