They both ate with a very good appetite.  Henriette was very calm, but laughed and joked, and her husband watched her furtively.  She had on a pink dressing gown trimmed with white lace, and her fair head, her white neck and her plump hands stood out from that coquettish and perfumed dress, like from a sea shell, edged with foam.  What had she been doing all day with that man?  Parent could see them kissing, and stammering out words of ardent love!  How was it that he could not manage to know everything, to guess the whole truth, by looking at them, sitting side by side, opposite to him?

What fun they must be making of him, if he had been their dupe since the first day?  Was it possible to make a fool of a man, of a worthy man, because his father had left him a little money?  Why could one not see these things in people’s souls, how was it that nothing revealed to upright hearts the deceits of infamous hearts, how was it that voices had the same sound for adoring as for lying, why was a false, deceptive look the same as a sincere one?  And he watched them waiting to catch a gesture, a word, an intonation; then suddenly he thought:  “I will surprise them this evening,” and he said:  “My dear, as I have dismissed Julie, I will see about getting another this very day, and I shall go out immediately to procure one by to-morrow morning, so I may not be in until late.”

“Very well,” she replied; “go, I shall not stir from here.  Limousin will keep me company.  We will wait for you.”  And then, turning to the maid, she said:  “You had better put George to bed, and then you can clear away and go up to your own room.”

Parent had got up; he was unsteady on his legs, dazed and giddy, and saying:  “I shall see you again later on,” he went out, holding onto the wall, for the floor seemed to roll, like a ship.  George had been carried out by his nurse, whilst Henriette and Limousin went into the drawing-room, and as soon as the door was shut, he said:  “You must be mad, surely, to torment your husband as you do?” She immediately turned on him:  “Ah!  Do you know that I think the habit you have got into lately, of looking upon Parent as a martyr, is very unpleasant?”

Limousin threw himself into an easy-chair, and crossed his legs:  “I am not setting him up as a martyr in the least, but I think that, situated as we are, it is ridiculous to defy this man as you do, from morning till night.”  She took a cigarette from the mantel-piece, lighted it, and replied:  “But I do not defy him, quite the contrary; only, he irritates me by his stupidity ... and I treat him as he deserves.”  Limousin continued impatiently:  “What you are doing is very foolish!  However, all women are alike.  Look here:  he is an excellent, kind fellow, stupidly confiding and good, who never interferes with us, who does not suspect us for a moment, who leaves us quite free and undisturbed, whenever we like, and you do all you can to put him into a rage and to spoil our life.”