“I do not see why one should hate an excellent fellow because one is friendly with his wife.”

“You do not see it?  You do not see it?  You all of you are wanting in refinement of feeling.  However, that is one of those things which one feels and cannot express.  And then, moreover, one ought not.  No, you would not understand; it is quite useless!  You men have no delicacy of feeling.”

And smiling, with the gentle contempt of an impure woman, she put both her hands on his shoulders and held up her lips to him.  He stooped down and clasped her closely in his arms, and their lips met.  And as they stood in front of the mantel mirror, another couple exactly like them embraced behind the clock.

They had heard nothing, neither the noise of the key nor the creaking of the door, but suddenly Henriette, with a loud cry, pushed Limousin away with both her arms, and they saw Parent looking at them, livid with rage, without his shoes on and his hat over his forehead.  He looked at each, one after the other, with a quick glance of his eyes and without moving his head.  He appeared beside himself.  Then, without saying a word, he threw himself on Limousin, seized him as if he were going to strangle him, and flung him into the opposite corner of the room so violently that the other lost his balance, and, beating the air with his hand, struck his head violently against the wall.

When Henriette saw that her husband was going to murder her lover, she threw herself on Parent, seized him by the neck, and digging her ten delicate, rosy fingers into his neck, she squeezed him so tightly, with all the vigor of a desperate woman, that the blood spurted out under her nails, and she bit his shoulder, as if she wished to tear it with her teeth.  Parent, half-strangled and choking, loosened his hold on Limousin, in order to shake off his wife, who was hanging to his neck.  Putting his arms round her waist, he flung her also to the other end of the drawing-room.

Then, as his passion was short-lived, like that of most good-tempered men, and his strength was soon exhausted, he remained standing between the two, panting, worn out, not knowing what to do next.  His brutal fury had expended itself in that effort, like the froth of a bottle of champagne, and his unwonted energy ended in a gasping for breath.  As soon as he could speak, however, he said: 

“Go away—­both of you—­immediately!  Go away!”

Limousin remained motionless in his corner, against the wall, too startled to understand anything as yet, too frightened to move a finger; while Henriette, with her hands resting on a small, round table, her head bent forward, her hair hanging down, the bodice of her dress unfastened, waited like a wild animal which is about to spring.  Parent continued in a stronger voice:  “Go away immediately.  Get out of the house!”

His wife, however, seeing that he had got over his first exasperation grew bolder, drew herself up, took two steps toward him, and, grown almost insolent, she said:  “Have you lost your head?  What is the matter with you?  What is the meaning of this unjustifiable violence?”