I soon heard a faint cough, which seemed to answer me and to grant me admission.  Women, you see, possess that exquisite tact, that extreme delicacy, which is wholly lacking to us.  Could one say more cleverly, in a more charming manner, “Come, I await you, my love, my spouse”?  Saint Peter would not have hit upon it.  That cough was heaven opening to me.  I turned the handle, the door swept noiselessly over the soft carpet.  I was in my wife’s room.

A delightful warmth met me face to face, and I breathed a vague perfume of violets and orris-root, or something akin, with which the air of the room was laden.  A charming disorder was apparent, the ball dress was spread upon a lounging-chair, two candles were discreetly burning beneath rose-colored shades.

I drew near the bed where Louise was reposing, on the farther side of it, with her face to the wall, and her head buried in the pillows.  Motionless and with closed eyes she appeared to be asleep, but her heightened color betrayed her emotion.  I must acknowledge that at that moment I felt the most embarrassed of mankind.  I resolved humbly to request hospitality.  That would be delicate and irreproachable.  Oh! you who have gone through these trials, search your memories and recall that ridiculous yet delightful moment, that moment of mingled anguish and joy, when it becomes necessary, without any preliminary rehearsal, to play the most difficult of parts, and to avoid the ridicule which is grinning at you from the folds of the curtains; to be at one and the same time a diplomatist, a barrister, and a man of action, and by skill, tact, and eloquence render the sternest of realities acceptable without banishing the most ideal of dreams.

I bent over the bed, and in the softest notes, the sweetest tones my voice could compass, I murmured, “Well, darling?”

One does what one can at such moments; I could not think of anything better, and yet, Heaven knows, I had tried.

No reply, and yet she was awake.  I will admit that my embarrassment was doubled.  I had reckoned—­I can say as much between ourselves—­upon more confidence and greater yielding.  I had calculated on a moment of effusiveness, full of modesty and alarm, it is true, but, at any rate, I had counted upon such effusiveness, and I found myself strangely disappointed.  The silence chilled me.

“You sleep very soundly, dear.  Yet I have a great many things to say; won’t you talk a little?”

As I spoke I—­touched her shoulder with the tip of my finger, and saw her suddenly shiver.

“Come,” said I; “must I kiss you to wake you up altogether?”

She could not help smiling, and I saw that she was blushing.

“Oh! do not be afraid, dear; I will only kiss the tips of your fingers gently, like that,” and seeing that she let me do so, I sat down on the bed.

She gave a little cry.  I had sat down on her foot, which was straying beneath the bedclothes.