her beauty and of her gown. There was much whispering
behind fans, for the poverty of the Marneffes was known to every one
in the office; the husband had been petitioning for help at the very
moment when the Baron had been so smitten with madame. Also, Hector
could not conceal his exultation at seeing Valerie's success; and she,
severely proper, very lady-like, and greatly envied, was the object of
that strict examination which women so greatly fear when they appear
for the first time in a new circle of society.

After seeing his wife into a carriage with his daughter and his
son-in-law, Hulot managed to escape unperceived, leaving his son and
Celestine to do the honors of the house. He got into Madame Marneffe's
carriage to see her home, but he found her silent and pensive, almost
melancholy.

"My happiness makes you very sad, Valerie," said he, putting his arm
round her and drawing her to him.

"Can you wonder, my dear," said she, "that a hapless woman should be a
little depressed at the thought of her first fall from virtue, even
when her husband's atrocities have set her free? Do you suppose that I
have no soul, no beliefs, no religion? Your glee this evening has been
really too barefaced; you have paraded me odiously. Really, a
schoolboy would have been less of a coxcomb. And the ladies have
dissected me with their side-glances and their satirical remarks.
Every woman has some care for her reputation, and you have wrecked
mine.

"Oh, I am yours and no mistake! And I have not an excuse left but that
of being faithful to you.--Monster that you are!" she added, laughing,
and allowing him to kiss her, "you knew very well what you were doing!
Madame Coquet, our chief clerk's wife, came to sit down by me, and
admired my lace. 'English point!' said she. 'Was it very expensive,
madame?'--'I do not know. This lace was my mother's. I am not rich
enough to buy the like,' said I."

Madame Marneffe, in short, had so bewitched the old beau, that he
really believed she was sinning for the first time for his sake, and
that he had inspired such a passion as had led her to this breach of
duty. She told him that the wretch Marneffe had neglected her after
they had been three days married, and for the most odious reasons.
Since then she had lived as innocently as a girl; marriage had seemed
to her so horrible. This was the cause of her present melancholy.

"If love should prove to be like marriage----" said she in tears.

The