“You have ceased to see her, and yet she has the assurance to talk with you so freely, holding your hand and looking into the whites of your eyes! And she laughed in my face when she went away. Ah! she has a most impudent manner! But I shall know her again. I had plenty of time to look at her, for you didn’t see me, you were so engrossed with that woman! You promised her something, for she said to you: ‘Don’t forget what you have just promised me.’--Is that so, monsieur?” “Great heaven! it is very possible, madame. I have no very clear idea what she said to me, for I wanted but one thing, and that was to get rid of her; for I suspected that if you saw me talking with her, it would put a lot of crazy ideas into your head.” “Crazy ideas! you expect me to see you with a woman like that, and not to object to it! Ah! I am suffocating! I cannot stand any more!” She put her handkerchief to her eyes. I took her hand and led her away, for I had no desire to make a spectacle of myself again on the Terrasse des Feuillants. We walked along the Champs-Elysées for some time, without speaking. I stopped in front of a restaurant and started to go in. “What is this place?” “A restaurant, where we are to dine.” “It is no use, I am not hungry; I want to go home.” “You know very well that everything in our apartment is packed up, and that we can’t dine there. Really, Eugénie, you are making yourself miserable for no reason at all. How can you think that if I had relations with that woman, I would be with her where I knew that you were coming?” “What did you promise her?” “Mon Dieu! I have no idea; she had been boring me and annoying me for ten minutes; I would have promised her all the treasures of the Indies to get rid of her.” “But why did she hold your hand?” “Because it is the habit of all those women; they can’t say a word to you without taking your arm or your hand.” “Is she a prostitute then?” “No, she is a--a kept woman.” “She has a very insolent manner, at all events.” At last I induced Eugénie to go in, and we were shown to a private room. I wrote my order, for after all, I myself realized that I had not dined. The waiter left the room, whispering to me in an undertone: “Monsieur will ring when he wants the dinner served.” He evidently misunderstood the state of affairs. Husbands and wives are not in the habit of dining in private rooms. Madame took a seat in the corner, a long way from the table. She rested her head on one of her hands. She had ceased to weep, but she did not look at me. How amusing it would be, if she acted like that all the time that we were dining, or that I was dining! So this was the little spree to which I had looked forward so eagerly! Man proposes and woman disposes. I wished Lucile at the devil with all my heart. It was her malice, her obstinacy, that had caused all the trouble. The idea of her refusing to leave me! It was simply because it annoyed me.