“Not at all,” he replied, by way of excuse.  “I simply meant that I was not at all anxious although you were late, and that I did not find fault with you for it.”

She, however, took the high hand, and tried to find a pretext for a quarrel.  “Although I was late?  One might really think that it was one o’clock in the morning, and that I spent my nights away from home.”

“Certainly not, my dear.  I said late because I could find no other word.  You said you should be back at half-past six, and you returned at half-past eight.  That was surely being late.  I understand it perfectly well.  I am not at all surprised, even.  But—­but—­I can hardly use any other word.”

“But you pronounce them as if I had been out all night.”

“Oh, no-oh, no!”

She saw that he would yield on every point, and she was going into her own room, when at last she noticed that George was screaming, and then she asked, with some feeling:  “What is the matter with the child?”

“I told you that Julie had been rather unkind to him.”

“What has the wretch been doing to him?”

“Oh nothing much.  She gave him a push, and he fell down.”

She wanted to see her child, and ran into the dining room, but stopped short at the sight of the table covered with spilt wine, with broken decanters and glasses and overturned saltcellars.  “Who did all that mischief?” she asked.

“It was Julie, who——­” But she interrupted him furiously: 

“That is too much, really!  Julie speaks of me as if I were a shameless woman, beats my child, breaks my plates and dishes, turns my house upside down, and it appears that you think it all quite natural.”

“Certainly not, as I have got rid of her.”

“Really!  You have got rid of her!  But you ought to have given her in charge.  In such cases, one ought to call in the Commissary of Police!”

“But—­my dear—­I really could not.  There was no reason.  It would have been very difficult——­”

She shrugged her shoulders disdainfully.  “There! you will never be anything but a poor, wretched fellow, a man without a will, without any firmness or energy.  Ah! she must have said some nice things to you, your Julie, to make you turn her off like that.  I should like to have been here for a minute, only for a minute.”  Then she opened the drawing-room door and ran to George, took him into her arms and kissed him, and said:  “Georgie, what is it, my darling, my pretty one, my treasure?”

Then, suddenly turning to another idea, she said:  “But the child has had no dinner?  You have had nothing to eat, my pet?”

“No, mamma.”

Then she again turned furiously upon her husband.  “Why, you must be mad, utterly mad!  It is half-past eight, and George has had no dinner!”

He excused himself as best he could, for he had nearly lost his wits through the overwhelming scene and the explanation, and felt crushed by this ruin of his life.  “But, my dear, we were waiting for you, as I did not wish to dine without you.  As you come home late every day, I expected you every moment.”