Part 28 (1/2)
”Certainly no one would ever think that she was educated in Paris.”
”Oh! she will have to form herself in good society. Would you believe that she expressed a purpose not to receive you again?”
”If my presence is unpleasant to Madame Murville, I shall be careful to avoid her.”
”Nonsense! that is just what I don't propose to have, or I shall be angry with you. I mean that you shall come to the house more than ever; that is my desire and it must suffice. Are you not friendly enough to me to overlook my wife's eccentric character?”
”Oh! my attachment to you has no bounds!”
”Dear Dufresne!--Look you, to prove how much confidence I have in you, and how little heed I pay to my wife's fairy tales, I am going to confide a secret to you, and I rely on your friends.h.i.+p to help me in the matter.”
”I am entirely devoted to you--speak.”
”My friend, I love, I adore, I am mad over Madame de Geran.”
”Is it possible? Why, you have only known her since last night.”
”That is long enough to make me love her.--What would you have--we cannot control those things. It's a caprice, a weakness, whatever you choose to call it! But I have lost my head.”
”You, Murville--such a reasonable man! and married, too!”
”Oh! my dear fellow, are married men any more virtuous than bachelors?
You know very well that the contrary is true; a man can't stick to his wife forever.”
”If your wife should think as you do!”
”Oh! so far as that is concerned, I am not alarmed; my wife is virtue personified, and she does no more than her duty; for a woman--that's a very different matter.”
”As to the consequences, yes; but morally, and even according to the law of nature, I consider that the fault is absolutely identical.”
”You are joking! At all events, aren't the consequences everything? Is the absurdity of it the same? Will any one ever laugh at a wife whose husband has mistresses? No, nothing is ever said then, because it is considered a very common occurrence; but if a wife makes her husband a cuckold----”
”That is a very common occurrence too.”
”For all that, people laugh at the poor husband and point their fingers at him!--Besides, what harm can come of the husband's infidelity? None at all. The fair ones who have yielded to him won't go about boasting of it! With a woman it is just the opposite; her lovers always ruin her reputation, either by their words, or by their actions, which never escape the eyes of curiosity and calumny. In fact, a woman who finds her husband in another woman's arms can only complain and weep; while a man who surprises his wife in _flagrante delicto_ has a right to punish the culprit; so you see, my dear fellow, that the offence is not the same, as the punishment is different.”
”I see that it was we men who made the laws, and that we treated ourselves very well.”
”Are you going to preach to me too? Really, Dufresne, you are almost as savagely virtuous as my wife.”
”No, my dear fellow, you don't know me yet. But before a.s.sisting you, I wanted to find out whether you had fully weighed the consequences of this intrigue.”
”I have weighed and calculated everything. I love Madame de Geran, and I wish to be loved in return. I feel that there is no sacrifice of which I am not capable to attain my object. Do you understand?”
”Oh! very well. Since your mind is made up, I will second you; but of course you won't reproach me for leading you on.”
”No, no! On the contrary, I beg you to a.s.sist me, and to help me to conceal this intrigue from my wife's eyes.”
”Don't be alarmed--leave all that to me. I will answer for all. When will you call on Madame de Geran?”