“I loved the Countess Claudieuse, and she loved me.”
“Adultery is a crime, Jacques.”
“A crime? Magloire said the same thing. But, father, do you really think
so? Then it is a crime which has nothing appalling about it, to which
every thing invites and encourages, of which everybody boasts, and at
which the world smiles. The law, it is true, gives the husband the right
of life and death; but, if you appeal to the law, it gives the guilty
man six months’ imprisonment, or makes him pay a few thousand francs.”
Ah, if he had known, the unfortunate man!
“Jacques,” said the marquis, “the Countess Claudieuse hints, as you say,
that one of her daughters, the youngest, is your child?”
“That may be so.”