He had taken her head in his right hand, passed around her, and turned
it towards him. Then he darted on her mouth like a hawk on its prey. She
struggled, repulsed him, tried to free herself. She succeeded at last,
and repeated: "Do leave off."
He remained seated, very red and chilled by this sensible remark; then,
having recovered more self-possession, he said, with some liveliness:
"Very well, I will wait, but I shan't be able to say a dozen words till
we get to Rouen. And remember that we are only passing through Poissy."
"I will do the talking then," she said, and sat down quietly beside him.
She spoke with precision of what they would do on their return. They
must keep on the suite of apartments that she had resided in with her
first husband, and Duroy would also inherit the duties and salary of
Forestier at the _Vie Francaise_. Before their union, besides, she had
planned out, with the certainty of a man of business, all the financial
details of their household. They had married under a settlement
preserving to each of them their respective estates, and every incident
that might arise--death, divorce, the birth of one or more children--was
duly provided for. The young fellow contributed a capital of four
thousand francs, he said, but of that sum he had borrowed fifteen
hundred. The rest was due to savings effected during the year in view of
the event. Her contribution was forty thousand francs, which she said
had been left her by Forestier.
She returned to him as a subject of conversation. "He was a very steady,
economical, hard-working fellow. He would have made a fortune in a very
short time."
Duroy no longer listened, wholly absorbed by other thoughts. She stopped
from time to time to follow out some inward train of ideas, and then
went on: "In three or four years you can be easily earning thirty to
forty thousand francs a year. That is what Charles would have had if he
had lived."
George, who began to find the lecture rather a long one, replied: "I
thought we were not going to Rouen to talk about him."
She gave him a slight tap on the cheek, saying, with a laugh: "That is
so. I am in the wrong."
He made a show of sitting with his hands on his knees like a very good
boy.
"You look very like a simpleton like that," said she.
He replied: "That is my part, of which, by the way, you reminded me just
now, and I shall continue to play it."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because it is you who take management of the household, and even of me.
That, indeed, concerns you, as being a widow."