“Perhaps she’s taken with some Arab,” he said.
“P’f! She’s dropped all that nonsense. The devil! A woman of forty’s an old woman in Africa.”
Bouvier spat.
“Isn’t she?”
“Oh, don’t ask me about women. Young or old, they’re always calling the Devil to their elbow.”
“What for?”
“To put them up to wickedness. Perhaps your wife’s been calling him to-night. You look behind her presently, and you may catch a sight of him. He’s always about where women are.”
“Ha, ha, ha!”
Lemaire laughed mirthlessly.
“D’you think he’d show himself to me?”