"Your habit."
"Yes, my habit, and hers also. She is married to an excellent man, whom I also value very much, a very cordial fellow. A capital companion! I may say, I think that my life is bound up with that house."
"Well?"
"Well! they could not manage to leave Paris, and I found myself a widower at Dieppe."
"Why did you go to Dieppe?"
"For change of air. One cannot remain on the Boulevards the whole time."
"And then?"
"Then I met the little woman I mentioned to you on the beach there."
"The wife of that head of the public office?"
"Yes; she was dreadfully dull; her husband only came every Sunday, and he is horrible! I understand her perfectly, and we laughed and danced together."
"And the rest?"
"Yes, but that came later. However, we met, we liked each other. I told her I liked her, and she made me repeat it, so that she might understand it better, and she put no obstacles in my way."
"Did you love her?"
"Yes, a little; she is very nice."
"And what about the other?"
"The other was in Paris! Well, for six weeks it was very pleasant, and wre returned here on the best of terms. Do you know how to break with a woman, when that woman has not wronged you in any way?"
"Yes, perfectly well."
"How do you manage it?"
"I give her up."
"How do you do it?"
"I do not see her any longer."
"But supposing she comes to you?"
"I am ... not at home."
"And if she comes again?"
"I say I am not well."
"If she looks after you?"
"I play her some dirty trick."
"And if she puts up with it?"
"I write to her husband anonymous letters, so that he may look after her on the days that I expect her."
"That is serious! I cannot resist, and do not know how to bring about a rupture, and so I have a collection of mistresses. There are some whom I do not see more than once a year, others every ten months, others on those days when they want to dine at a restaurant, those whom I have put at regular intervals do not worry me, but I often have great difficulty with the fresh ones, so as to keep them at proper intervals."
"And then...."
"And then ... Then, this little woman was all fire and flame, without any fault of mine, as I told you! As her husband spends all the whole day at his office, she began to come to me unexpectedly, and twice she nearly met my regular one on, the stairs."
"The devil!"
"Yes; so I gave each of them her days, regular days, to avoid confusion; Sat.u.r.day and Monday for the old one, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday for the new one."
"Why did you show her the preference?"
"Ah! My dear friend, she is younger."
"The devil!"
"Yes; so I gave each of them her days, regular days, to avoid confusion; Sat.u.r.day and Monday for the old one, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday for the new one."
"Why did you show her the preference?"
"Ah! My dear friend, she is younger."
"So that only gave you two days to yourself in a week."
"That is enough for one."
"Allow me to compliment you on that."
"Well, just fancy that the most ridiculous and most annoying thing in the world happened to me. For four months everything had been going on perfectly; I felt perfectly safe, and I was really very happy, when suddenly, last Monday, the crash came.
"I was expecting my regular one at the usual time, a quarter past one, and was smoking a good cigar, and dreaming, very well satisfied with myself, when I suddenly saw that it was past the time, at which I was much surprised, for she is very punctual, but I thought that something might have accidentally delayed her. However, half-an-hour pa.s.sed, then an hour, an hour and a half, and then I knew that something must have detained her; a sick headache, perhaps, or some annoying visitor. That sort of waiting is very vexatious, that ... useless waiting ... very annoying and enervating. At last, I made up my mind to go out, and not knowing what to do, I went to her and found her reading a novel."
"Well!" I said to her. And she replied quite calmly:
"My dear I could not come; I was hindered."
"How?"
"My ... something else."
"What was it?