"What joy! The man with the quid of tobacco won't come here again!"
XVI
A BAIGNOIRE
After the evening when young Callé played bézique until midnight with Madame Dubotté, the clinging Éléonore said to her husband:
"Do you know, monsieur, that it was very wrong of you to leave me to pass the evening alone with a young man? and that it shows the greatest indifference on your part toward your wife? for, if I didn't love you as I do, I might revenge myself for your neglect. You expose me to the risk of receiving declarations of love!"
"My dear love, you don't look at things from the right standpoint," Philémon replied, caressing his mutton-chop whiskers, which threatened to encroach upon his cheeks. "Tell me, did Callé make a declaration?"
"Oh, no!"
"You see! Deuce take it! I know with whom I leave you: that young man is as virtuous as Voltaire's Candide. Do you know Candide?"
"No, my dear."
"I'll get it for you; for you're a little behindhand in literary matters, and I propose to train you in every way. I don't choose to have people say of my wife that she's a ninny. I won't have that, do you hear? and you must govern yourself accordingly."
"I will try, my dear."