Le Cocu Part 23

"Parbleu! if he has come, my dear love, it is simply because I met him and brought him by force; but for that, you wouldn't have seen him yet."

"Ah! how wicked it is to forget one's good friends, one's neighbors!"

"Mon Dieu! madame, you see--that----"

"Ha! ha! he is getting mixed up; he is ashamed of his wrongdoing," said Ernest, laughingly; "we must be generous and say nothing more to him about it."

They ushered me into a bedroom which served as a salon; it was not magnificent, but there was everything that was necessary, and there was an atmosphere of order and of neatness which did much credit to the mistress of the house.

Madame Ernest, for I could call her by no other name, was a little stouter than of old; she was most attractive, and her eyes and all her features expressed a contentment, a happiness which added to her charm.

They made me sit down, and we talked of the evenings we had pa.s.sed together in the attic, long ago.

"Are you married to your Eugenie?" asked Madame Ernest.

"Yes, madame, thirteen months ago."

"You must be very happy! for you were very much in love with her, and she loved you dearly too."

"Yes, madame."

"Have you any children?"

"What a foolish creature!" said Ernest; "do you suppose that they have had six or seven in thirteen months?"

"I mean a child."

"Yes, I have had a little daughter for two months and a half."

"Ah! you are luckier than we are. I should like so much to have a child; and since my miscarriage--But this time I have hopes."

And the little woman glanced at Ernest with a smile; he smiled back at her, saying:

"Are such things mentioned before people?"

"Oh! never mind! What harm is there in hoping to be a mother?--Besides, Monsieur Blemont isn't 'people;' he is our friend; he proved it that night that I was sick.--But come and see what pretty rooms we have."

The little woman showed me over her apartments, which consisted of three rooms and a small dressing-room. She stopped in front of the fireplace in her bedroom and said:

"Do you see? We have a clock!"

"Hush, Marguerite!" said Ernest.

"No, no, I am going to speak. Ought I to pretend to be proud with Monsieur Henri, who knew me when I was so poor and unhappy? I am sure that it pleases him to see that we have all these things."

"Indeed, you are quite right, madame; and you judge me aright in thinking that I am happy in your happiness."

"I was right, you see. I also have a woman who comes in in the morning, to do the heavy work. Ernest insisted upon it, because he declares that I am not strong enough."

"How interesting to monsieur to know that!"

"Yes, yes, it is interesting.--He is always scolding me, because he says that I am ignorant of the proprieties. Bless my soul! it isn't my fault; it seems to me that one may well talk to her friends about what interests her; I am so happy!"

And Marguerite began to dance about the room; then she ran and threw her arms about Ernest's neck and kissed him. She was as much a child as ever; but she was not yet eighteen. I prayed that she might retain that happy disposition for a long time to come.

The time pa.s.ses quickly when one is in pleasant company. I suddenly discovered that it was long past five o'clock; and my wife would be expecting me to dinner, and I was to take her that evening to see a new play! I bade my young friends good-bye. I promised to go again to see them and I urged Ernest to come upstairs when he pa.s.sed my house.

It rarely happened that I was not at home some time before the dinner hour; and that day we were to dine before five o'clock, in order to have plenty of time to go to the theatre. I found Eugenie at the window, anxious and impatient.

"Where on earth have you been? It is almost half-past five; you never come home so late."

"My dear love, I met a friend,--one of my old friends."

"Should a man's friends cause him to forget his wife?"

"I didn't think about the time."

"And you didn't think of me, who have been waiting for you and who did not know what to think."

"Nonsense! come to dinner."

"But tell me, where have you been?"

"I will tell you at the table."

We sat down, and I told my wife the story of my acquaintance with Ernest and Marguerite. I was obliged to begin some way back, in order to explain to her how it happened that I went up to the attic room.

Eugenie, who listened at first with interest, became thoughtful, and her brow darkened. I finished my story, and still she was silent for a long time. I ate my dinner, but she did not eat. She continued to keep silent, and it vexed me at last.

"Why don't you eat?"

"Because I am not hungry."

"And why are you sulky with me?"

"Sulky! I am not sulky."

"You don't say a word; is that the way we ordinarily act when we are together?"

"I am thinking about your former neighbor, about your friend's mistress, whom you used to go to see in her room under the eaves."

"I went to see her when Ernest was there."

"Oh! you were always sure to find him, were you?"

"Yes, for I seldom went except in the evening, and Ernest was almost always there then."

"Almost always!"

"Eugenie, I have told you the truth; you would do very wrong to believe anything else."