Dufresne gratified Edouard’s curiosity by informing him that Madame de Géran was the widow of a general, that she was absolutely her own mistress, that she had some means but possessed the art of spending money rapidly, because she was exceedingly fond of pleasure. Dufresne took pains to add that many men paid court to the young widow, but that she received their homage with indifference, treated love as a joke and made sport of the flames she kindled, and that her conquest seemed to be difficult of accomplishment. All that he learned added to Edouard’s newly-born passion. What joy to carry off the palm from so many rivals,--and Madame de Géran had looked at him and treated him in such a way as to justify him in forming hopes. The fact was that she had turned his head; and Dufresne, who had no difficulty in reading the weak and fickle Murville’s heart, seized the opportunity to broach the subject of his interview with Adeline, taking pains to represent the thing as a mere pleasantry, which he did not expect would be so severely reprehended. “Yes, yes, I know,” said Edouard; “my wife spoke to me about it this morning.” “Ah! she told you----” “That you were a monster, a villain, a false friend!” “Indeed!” “And much more too! for I warn you that she is furiously angry with you. But never fear--I will pacify her; she will see that she took the thing in the wrong way when she learns that you mentioned it first.” “I am truly sorry that I amused myself by--But after all, your wife is a very strange woman!” “It’s her mother, Madame Germeuil, who has stuffed her head with romantic ideas.” “Certainly no one would ever think that she was educated in Paris.” “Oh! she will have to form herself in good society. Would you believe that she expressed a purpose not to receive you again?” “If my presence is unpleasant to Madame Murville, I shall be careful to avoid her.” “Nonsense! that is just what I don’t propose to have, or I shall be angry with you. I mean that you shall come to the house more than ever; that is my desire and it must suffice. Are you not friendly enough to me to overlook my wife’s eccentric character?” “Oh! my attachment to you has no bounds!” “Dear Dufresne!--Look you, to prove how much confidence I have in you, and how little heed I pay to my wife’s fairy tales, I am going to confide a secret to you, and I rely on your friendship to help me in the matter.” “I am entirely devoted to you--speak.” “My friend, I love, I adore, I am mad over Madame de Géran.” “Is it possible? Why, you have only known her since last night.” “That is long enough to make me love her.--What would you have--we cannot control those things. It’s a caprice, a weakness, whatever you choose to call it! But I have lost my head.” “You, Murville--such a reasonable man! and married, too!” “Oh! my dear fellow, are married men any more virtuous than bachelors? You know very well that the contrary is true; a man can’t stick to his wife forever.”