'Frankly, I would let my husband do what he wished. He is obviously a very loving painter; you have not yet tried him as a clerk. And you know - if it were only as the possible father of your children - it is as well to keep him at his best.'
'He is an excellent fellow,' said the wife.
They kept it up till sunrise with music and all manner of good fellowship; and at sunrise, while the sky was still temperate and clear, they separated on the threshold with a thousand excellent wishes for each other's welfare. Castel-le-Gachis was beginning to send up its smoke against the golden East; and the church bell was ringing six.
'My guitar is a familiar spirit,' said Leon, as he and Elvira took the nearest way towards the inn, 'it resuscitated a Commissary, created an English tourist, and reconciled a man and wife.'
Stubbs, on his part, went off into the morning with reflections of his own.
'They are all mad,' thought he, 'all mad - but wonderfully decent.'
