With an air of astonishment, which also betrayed a little irritation she said:  “So you open the door now?  Where is Julie?” His throat felt tight, and his breathing was labored and he tried to reply, without being able to utter a word, so she continued:  “Are you dumb?  I asked you where Julie is?” And then he managed to say:  “She ... she ... has ... gone ...”  Whereupon his wife began to get angry.  “What do you mean by gone?  Where has she gone?  Why?” By degrees he regained his coolness, and he felt immense hatred for that insolent woman who was standing before him, rise up in him:  “Yes, she has gone altogether ...  I sent her away ...”  “You have sent away Julie?...  Why you must be mad.”  “Yes, I have sent her away because she was insolent ... and because, because she was ill-using the child.”  “Julie?” “Yes ...  Julie.”  “What was she insolent about?” “About you.”  “About me?” “Yes, because the dinner was burnt, and you did not come in.”  “And she said ...?” “She said ... offensive things about you ... which I ought not ... which I could not listen to ...”  “What did she say?” “It is no good repeating them.”  “I want to hear them.”  “She said it was unfortunate for a man like me to be married to a woman like you, unpunctual, careless, disorderly, a bad mother and a bad wife ...”

The young woman had gone into the anteroom followed by Limousin, who did not say a word at this unexpected position of things.  She shut the door quickly, threw her cloak onto a chair, and going straight up to her husband, she stammered out:  “You say? ... you say? ... that I am ...?”

He was very pale and calm and replied:  “I say nothing, my dear.  I am simply repeating what Julie said to me, as you wanted to know what it was, and I wish you to remark that I turned her off just on account of what she said.”

She trembled with a violent longing to tear out his beard and scratch his face.  In his voice and manner she felt that he was asserting his position as master, although she had nothing to say by way of reply, and she tried to assume the offensive, by saying something unpleasant:  “I suppose you have had dinner?” she asked.

“No, I waited for you.”  She shrugged her shoulders impatiently.  “It is very stupid of you to wait after half past seven,” she said.  “You might have guessed that I was detained, that I had a good many things to do, visits and shopping.”

And then suddenly, she felt that she wanted to explain how she had spent her time, and she told him in abrupt, haughty words, that having to buy some furniture in a shop a long distance off, very far off, in the Rue de Rennes, she had met Limousin at past seven o’clock on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, and that then she had gone with him to have something to eat in a restaurant, as she did not like to go to one by herself, although she was faint with hunger.  That was how she had dined, with Limousin, if it could be called dining, for they had only had some soup and half a fowl, as they were in a great hurry to get back, and Parent replied simply:  “Well, you were quite right.  I am not finding fault with you.”