Very well! In this degree of longitude, not far from a tropical sign
upon the name of which good taste forbids us to make a jest at once
coarse and unworthy of this thoughtful work, a horrible little
annoyance appears, ingeniously called the Matrimonial Gadfly, the most
provoking of all gnats, mosquitoes, blood-suckers, fleas and
scorpions, for no net was ever yet invented that could keep it off.
The gadfly does not immediately sting you; it begins by buzzing in
your ears, and _you do not at first know what it is_.
Thus, apropos of nothing, in the most natural way in the world,
Caroline says: "Madame Deschars had a lovely dress on, yesterday."
"She is a woman of taste," returns Adolphe, though he is far from
thinking so.
"Her husband gave it to her," resumes Caroline, with a shrug of her
shoulders.
"Ah!"
"Yes, a four hundred franc dress! It's the very finest quality of
velvet."
"Four hundred francs!" cries Adolphe, striking the attitude of the
apostle Thomas.
"But then there are two extra breadths and enough for a high waist!"
"Monsieur Deschars does things on a grand scale," replies Adolphe,
taking refuge in a jest.
"All men don't pay such attentions to their wives," says Caroline,
curtly.
"What attentions?"
"Why, Adolphe, thinking of extra breadths and of a waist to make the
dress good again, when it is no longer fit to be worn low in the
neck."