"We are not at all gallant this morning," and looking at his neighbor,
the little Baroness of Serennes, who was struggling with drowsiness, he
said to her in a subdued voice: "You are thinking of your husband,
Baroness. Reassure yourself; he will not return before Saturday, so you
have still four days."
She responded to him with a sleepy smile.
"How rude you are." Then, shaking off her torpor, she added: "Now, let
somebody say something that will make us all laugh. You, Monsieur
Chenal who have the reputation of possessing a larger fortune than the
Duke of Richelieu, tell us a love story in which you have been mixed
up, anything you like."
Leon Chenal, an old painter, who had once keen very handsome, very
strong, who was very proud of his physique and very amiable, took his
long white beard in his hand and smiled; then, after a few moments'
reflection, he became suddenly grave.
"Ladies, it will not be an amusing tale; for I am going to relate to
you the most lamentable love affair of my life, and I sincerely hope
that none of my friends has ever passed through a similar experience."