I was not the only one to feel that this man was in a fury, nor to notice his forehead, eyes and gestures, which displayed the obvious signs, to a painter, of a formidable moral tempest. I saw the group of gentlemen near which I was dissolve to make room for Madam de Bonnivet, who was approaching her husband. In the same way that a little while before she had found a smile of supreme contempt, with which to congratulate Camille Favier and reply to the insult of an atrocious allusion by the insult of an implacable indifference, now she found a tender and affectionate smile to reply to her husband’s suddenly aggravated suspicions. She brought him in her gracious and affectionate smile an indisputable proof of her clear conscience. The sensation of her presence was necessary to this man at the moment and she had realized this, and also that the physical reality of her voice, of her look, of her breath, the evidence, too, of her tranquillity would impose upon her jealous husband a suggestion of calmness. Serenely radiant in her sumptuous white toilette, her eyes clear and gay, a half smile upon her pretty mouth, and fanning her lovely face with a gentle little motion which hardly disturbed the golden hair upon her brow, she walked towards him, hypnotizing him with her look. I could see at her approach the unhappy man’s face relax, while Bressoré, whom I knew, took my arm and whispered in my ear— “How smart she is! But, La Croix, as you are a friend of Favier’s, I hope you will make her understand that her way of conducting herself this evening is very bad for me and for all of us! Why this is a house where we are received like swells, and yet because she is jealous of the mistress of the house and Molan, she behaves like a fool and treats her as Adrienne Lecouvreur did! I saw it coming and I saw it pass, and now I have not a dry stitch of clothing on me. It did not strike home, it is true, but it might have done so. But then if the audience did not understand, the husband and wife did. I tell you this house is closed to us for the future. They have had their fill of acting at home by this time. Frankly, put yourself in their place, it would not do at all, would it? I am not more straight-laced than most, and I have my fancies, but I always behave in a gentlemanly way.”