He embraced her once more when she made this acknowledgment, and murmured:
"What an a.s.s he was! You were not happy with him?"
She answered:
"No. He was not always jolly."
Leuillet felt quite delighted, making a comparison in his own mind between his wife"s former situation and her present one.
He remained silent for some time: then, with a fresh outburst of merit, he said:
"Tell me this!"
"What?"
"Will you be quite candid--quite candid with me?"
"Certainly, dear."
"Well, look here! Have you never been tempted to--to deceive this imbecile, Souris?"
Mme. Leuillet uttered a little "Oh!" in a shamefaced way, and again cuddled her face closer to her husband"s chest. But he could see that she was laughing.
He persisted:
"Come now, confess it! He had a head just suited for a cuckold, this blockhead! It would be so funny! This good Souris! Oh! I say, darling, you might tell it to me--only to me!"
He emphasized the words "to me," feeling certain that if she wanted to show any taste when she deceived her husband, he, Leuillet, would have been the man; and he quivered with joy at the expectation of this avowal, sure that if she had not been the virtuous woman she was he could have had her then.
But she did not reply, laughing incessantly as if at the recollection of something infinitely comic.
Leuillet, in his turn, burst out laughing at the notion that he might have made a cuckold of Souris. What a good joke! What a capital bit of fun, to be sure!
He exclaimed in a voice broken by convulsions of laughter.
"Oh! poor Souris! poor Souris! Ah! yes, he had that sort of head--oh, certainly he had!"
And Mme. Leuillet now twisted herself under the sheets, laughing till the tears almost came into her eyes.
And Leuillet repeated: "Come, confess it! confess it! Be candid. You must know that it cannot be unpleasant to me to hear such a thing."
Then she stammered, still choking with laughter.
"Yes, yes."
Her husband pressed her for an answer.
"Yes, what? Look here! tell me everything."
She was now laughing in a more subdued fashion, and, raising her mouth up to Leuillet"s ear, which was held towards her in antic.i.p.ation of some pleasant piece of confidence, she whispered--"Yes, I did deceive him!"
He felt a cold shiver down his back, and utterly dumbfounded, he gasped.
"You--you--did--really--deceive him?"
She was still under the impression that he thought the thing infinitely pleasant, and replied.
"Yes--really--really."
He was obliged to sit up in bed so great was the shock he received, holding his breath, just as overwhelmed as if he had just been told that he was a cuckold himself. At first, he was unable to articulate properly; then after the lapse of a minute or so, he merely e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.
"Ah!"
She, too, had stopped laughing now, realizing her mistake too late.
Leuillet, at length asked.
"And with whom?"
She kept silent, cudgeling her brain to find some excuse.
He repeated his question.
"With whom?"
At last, she said.
"With a young man."
He turned towards her abruptly, and in a dry tone, said.
"Well, I suppose it wasn"t with some kitchen wench. I ask you who was the young man--do you understand?"
She did not answer. He tore away the sheet which she had drawn over her head, and pushed her into the middle of the bed, repeating.
"I want to know with what young man--do you understand?"
Then, she replied with some difficulty in uttering the words.
"I only wanted to laugh." But he fairly shook with rage: "What? How is that? You only wanted to laugh? So then you were making game of me?
I"m not going to be satisfied with these evasions, let me tell you! I ask you what was the young man"s name?"
She did not reply, but lay motionless on her back.
He caught hold of her arm and pressed it tightly.
"Do you hear me, I say? I want you to give me an answer when I speak to you."