"By the way," said I, "what did you do with the little flower girl?"
"Whom do you mean? little Nicette?"
"Yes, little Nicette, whom you used to go to make love to every
evening."
"Oh! it's a long while since that was all over, and I have ceased to
think of her! I have had so many others since!"
"She was your mistress, then?"
"Yes, for three or four days; and then I dropped her."
"Don't you see her now?"
"Never. I don't even know where she is, for she has left her shop. Oh!
somebody keeps her now, I presume. That little creature had the most
absurd pretensions! she wanted to play the lady, and that sickened me!
When I want a _petite-maîtresse_, I don't apply to a flower girl.
Everyone should stay where she belongs.--By the way, speaking of
_petites-maîtresses_, let us speak of your wife. She is really
beautiful! and so amiable, too! and she fairly sparkles with wit! I saw
that at the first glance. Deuce take it! how lucky you are, my dear
fellow!"
When he began to talk about my wife, I ceased to listen to him. I
thought of what he had told me of Nicette; he declared that she had been
his mistress! could it be true? Ah! if I had not seen him in her shop, I
would have spurned the idea as a ghastly lie. So it was impossible to
find out what had become of her! Perhaps I should never see her again!
That thought saddened me, and I could not banish it from my mind. My
wife returned, having completed her toilet. Raymond offered her his arm;
I motioned to Pélagie to accept it, as it was not customary for a wife
to take her husband's arm when another gentleman offered his. If I had
been in love with my wife, I would have snapped my fingers at such a
custom; but, on the contrary, I was delighted to be able to go by myself
and dream undisturbed.
Raymond was enchanted to have on his arm a pretty woman who thought that
everything that he said was charming. He went to the play with us, and
carried the whole burden of the conversation. I did what I could to
take part in it and to divert my thoughts; but, in spite of myself, I
kept falling back upon my memories. Luckily, neither of them perceived
it: my wife enjoyed the play and Raymond, and he was in ecstasies over
what he said and what Pélagie replied.
When the play was over, we all went home. Ah! how I longed then for a
separate room! but I dared not suggest it.
That day gave birth to a depression which I could not overcome. My wife
said nothing, but I was very sure that she found Raymond much more
attractive than me. What idiocy to bind one's self to a person whose
sentiments have nothing in common with one's own! I said that to myself
every day, and every day I spent a little less time with my wife. I left
her to be amused by Raymond's conversation; and I went off to my little
bachelor apartment, to think; often I wrote there, and read, and worked;
I was so comfortable there! I let my thoughts stray back to happier
days; to the days when I used to find bunches of orange blossoms hung at
my door. Ah! how happy I might have been then! but I did not know enough
to appreciate my good fortune. Not until those moments were past and
gone forever did I realize all their worth! and when I left my little
apartment to go back to the other, I regretted them more keenly than
ever.