“ ‘Oh,’ she said quickly, ‘I like people who are really strong and healthy.’
“ ‘You shall see him, however, madame, but not for three or four days, for he went to England yesterday.’
“ ‘Oh! how vexing!’ said she.
“ ‘Good heavens! It is and it isn’t. Are you in a hurry to return home?’
“ ‘Not at all.’
“ ‘Well, stay here. I will give myself the pleasure of helping you to pass the time.’
“ ‘You are too kind.’
“ ‘You are staying in a hotel?’
“She mentioned the best hotel in Rouen.
“ ‘Well, madam, will you allow your future … notary to take you to dine this evening?’
“She seemed to hesitate, uneasy and irresolute; then she made up her mind.
“ ‘Yes.’
“And I escorted her to the door.
“At seven o’clock I was at the hotel. She had made an elaborate toilet for me and received me in a very coquettish fashion.
“I took her to dine in a restaurant where I was known, and I ordered a stimulating meal.
“Within an hour we were very friendly, and she was telling me her story. She was the daughter of a great lady who had been seduced by a nobleman, and had been brought up by some country people. She was rich now, having inherited large sums from her father and her mother, whose names she would never tell, never. It was no use asking her for them, no use begging her, she would not give them. As I was not much concerned to know them, I questioned her about her fortune. She spoke of it readily and like a practical woman, quite sure of herself, sure of figures, securities, income, dividends and investments. The competent way she dealt with this made me feel great confidence in her at once, and I made myself very agreeable to her, with a certain amount of reserve, however, but I let her see quite plainly that I was attracted by her.
“She began to give herself airs, and they didn’t become her badly, either. I pressed her to have champagne, and I drank some myself, and it went to my head a little. I saw very plainly that I was going to become rash, and I was afraid, afraid of myself, afraid of her, afraid that she too was a little excited and might yield. To steady myself, I began to talk to her about her dowry again, which must be verified beyond any possibility of mistake, for my client was a business man.
“She answered gaily:
“ ‘Oh, I know. I have brought all the proofs.’
“ ‘Here, to Rouen?’
“ ‘Yes, to Rouen.’
“ ‘You have them at the hotel?’
“ ‘Of course.’
“ ‘Can you show them to me?’
“ ‘Of course.’
“ ‘This evening?’
“ ‘Of course.’
“This was a complete relief to me. I settled the bill, and off we went to her hotel.
“She had, as she said, brought all her securities. I could not doubt their existence, I held them, fingered them, read them. This filled me with such heartfelt joy that I was immediately seized with a violent desire to embrace her. I mean, with a chaste desire, the desire of a satisfied man. And upon my word, I embraced her. Once, twice, ten times … so heartily that—the champagne helping—I succumbed … or rather … no … she succumbed.
“Oh, I made a rare scene about it, after that … and so did she. She wept like a fountain, and begged me not to betray her, not to ruin her. I promised everything she wanted, and I went away in a dreadful state of mind.
“What was I to do? I had outraged my client. That would not have mattered at all if I had had a client for her, but I hadn’t one. I was the client, the simple-minded client, the deceived client, deceived by myself. What a situation! I could leave her in the lurch, of course. But the dowry, actual, certain! Besides, had I the right to leave her in the lurch, poor girl, after having taken advantage of her like that? But what anxieties I should be laying up for myself!
“What security could I feel with a wife who succumbed so easily!
“I spent a dreadful night, unable to make up my mind, tortured with remorse, harried by fears, torn this way and that by every kind of scruple. But in the morning my brain cleared. I dressed myself carefully, and as eleven o’clock was striking, I presented myself at the hotel where she was staying.
“When she saw me, she blushed to the roots of her hair.
“I said:
“ ‘Madame, there is only one thing I can do to repay you the wrong I have done you. I ask you to marry me.’
“She stammered:
“ ‘I consent.’
“I married her.
“For six months all went well.
“I had given up my office, I was living on my income, and really, I had nothing, not a single thing, to reproach my wife with.
“However, I began to notice that every now and then she went out and stayed out for an appreciable time. This happened at regular times, one week on Tuesday, another week on Friday. I was sure she was deceiving me, and I followed her.
“It was a Tuesday. She set out on foot, about one o’clock, walked down the Rue de la République, turned to the right down the street that runs from the Archbishop’s Palace, took the Rue Grand-Pont as far as the Seine, went along the quay as far as the Pierre bridge and crossed the water. At this point, she seemed uneasy; she kept turning round to scrutinise all the passersby.
“As I had got myself up to look like a coal-heaver, she did not recognise me.
“At last she went into the station on the left side
