ty
to see how frightened he is of seeming to listen to me. I must be in the
right ten times over if he concedes a single point.'

"(Emphatic negative gestures from du Bruel at every other word.)

"'Oh, yes, yes,' she continued quickly, in answer to this mute dissent.
'I know all about it, du Bruel, my dear, I that have been like a queen
in my house all my life till I married you. My wishes were guessed,
fulfilled, and more than fulfilled. After all, I am thirty-five, and at
five-and-thirty a woman cannot expect to be loved. Ah, if I were a girl
of sixteen, if I had not lost something that is dearly bought at the
Opera, what attention you would pay me, M. du Bruel! I feel the most
supreme contempt for men who boast that they can love and grow careless
and neglectful in little things as time grows on. You are short and
insignificant, you see, du Bruel; you love to torment a woman; it is
your only way of showing your strength. A Napoleon is ready to be swayed
by the woman he loves; he loses nothing by it; but as for such as you,
you believe that you are nothing apparently, you do not wish to be
ruled.--Five-and-thirty, my dear boy,' she continued, turning to me,
'that is the clue to the riddle.--"No," does he say again?--You know
quite well that I am thirty-seven. I am very sorry, but just ask your
friends to dine at the _Rocher de Cancale_. I _could_ have them here,
but I will not; they shall not come. And then perhaps my poor little
monologue may engrave that salutary maxim, "Each is master at home,"
upon your memory. That is our character,' she added, laughing, with a
return of the opera girl's giddiness and caprice.

"'Well, well, my dear little puss; there, there, never mind. We can
manage to get on together,' said du Bruel, and he kissed her hands, and
we came away. But he was very wroth.

"The whole way from the Rue de la Victoire to the boulevard a perfect
torrent of venomous words poured from his mouth like a waterfall in
flood; but as the shocking language which he used on occasion was quite
unfit to print, the report is necessarily inadequate.

"'My dear fellow, I will leave that vile, shameless opera dancer, a
worn-out jade that has been set spinning like a top to every operatic
air; a foul hussy, an organ-grinder's monkey! Oh, my dear boy, you have
taken up with an actress; may the notion of marrying your mistress never
get a hold on you. It is a torment omitted from the hell of Dante, you
see. Look here!