She was standing close to him, only waiting for a smile, a gesture, to
throw herself into his arms, and murmured: "You should not have taken me
to treat me thus, you should have left me sober-minded and happy as I
was. Do you remember what you said to me in the church, and how you
forced me into this house? And now, how do you speak to me? how do you
receive me? Oh, God! oh, God! what pain you give me!"
He stamped his foot, and exclaimed, violently: "Ah, bosh! That's enough
of it! I can't see you a moment without hearing all that foolery. One
would really think that I had carried you off at twelve years of age,
and that you were as ignorant as an angel. No, my dear, let us put
things in their proper light; there was no seduction of a young girl in
the business. You gave yourself to me at full years of discretion. I
thank you. I am infinitely grateful to you, but I am not bound to be
tied till death to your petticoat strings. You have a husband and I a
wife. We are neither of us free. We indulged in a mutual caprice, and it
is over."
"Oh, you are brutal, coarse, shameless," she said; "I was indeed no
longer a young girl, but I had never loved, never faltered."
He cut her short with: "I know it. You have told me so twenty times. But
you had had two children."
She drew back, exclaiming: "Oh, George, that is unworthy of you," and
pressing her two hands to her heart, began to choke and sob.
When he saw the tears come he took his hat from the corner of the
mantelpiece, saying: "Oh, you are going to cry, are you? Good-bye, then.
So it was to show off in this way that you came here, eh?"
She had taken a step forward in order to bar the way, and quickly
pulling out a handkerchief from her pocket, wiped her eyes with an
abrupt movement. Her voice grew firmer by the effort of her will, as she
said, in tones tremulous with pain, "No--I came to--to tell you some
news--political news--to put you in the way of gaining fifty thousand
francs--or even more--if you like."