sly little laugh on her face,
which she pressed close to her husband's neck.

He persisted in his questions:

"Come now! Don't deny that he was a flat--well, I mean, rather an
awkward sort of fellow?"

She nodded slightly.

"Well, yes, rather awkward."

He went on:

"I'm sure he used to weary you many a night--isn't that so?"

This time, she had an access of frankness, and she replied:

"Oh! yes."

He embraced her once more when she made this acknowledgment, and
murmured:

"What an ass 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 ev