"It is true that there are some like that."
"What I had to do was to deceive an Argus, an Othello; I had to invent some stratagem day after day. Luckily I am never at a loss."
"To-day Montdidier dined out; a ceremonious dinner which he could not avoid attending. Thereupon we laid our plans. His wife pretended to dine early, and then she said that she was going to see her aunt; she did leave the house, in fact, but she joined me at a little restaurant on Boulevard du Temple. Everything passed off as we had agreed; we had an excellent dinner, et cætera, et cætera!"
"I beg you to believe that there were a great many. In the evening, Hélène--that is the name of my inamorata----"
"That is so, on my word! I hadn't thought of that. Well, Hélène had to go to join her Menelaus. Ha! ha! that is very amusing--Menelaus----"
"Just so, I am Paris. What a pity that I cannot laugh now!--Well, Hélène was to join her husband at Giraud's, who gives a reception to-night. You know Giraud, a loquacious fellow, who thinks that he's a business agent because he has three boxes standing on his desk, and who has a mania for trying to marry everybody, and that merely that he and his wife may be present at the wedding?"
"I was to go to Giraud's too, but not until later; we did not want to arrive together. People are talking enough already, and I have such a terrible reputation."
"Well, just now we sent out for a cab, and Hélène and I got into it. I ought to have let her go alone; but what can you expect? It is always so hard to part! That woman is exceedingly passionate.--Well, we were in the cab. You know that Giraud lives on Rue Poissonnière; I had told the driver to put me down at the corner of the boulevard. We were going along quietly enough, when suddenly we felt that we were thrown against the side of the cab; Hélène fell against the door, and I fell upon her; it was all because of an accident to the cab--one of the hind wheels had broken. We shouted like madmen. Hélène pushed me away with her hand, which she thrust into my eye, saying that I was stifling her; and I said to her: 'Take your hand away; you are putting out my eye!'--Can't you imagine the picture?"
"I observe that you had ceased to say sweet things to each other."