, and exclaimed, "Gee ho, donkey!" to the asses that were
drawing cars along, and stopped to gaze through the gate into the
interior of one of the lovely gardens; or else the wet-nurse would take
the child and place it under the shade of a walnut-tree; and for hours
the two women would keep talking the most tiresome nonsense.

Frederick, not far away from them, gazed at the beds of vines on the
slopes, with here and there a clump of trees; at the dusty paths
resembling strips of grey ribbon; at the houses, which showed white and
red spots in the midst of the greenery; and sometimes the smoke of a
locomotive stretched out horizontally to the bases of the hills, covered
with foliage, like a gigantic ostrich's feather, the thin end of which
was disappearing from view.

Then his eyes once more rested on his son. He imagined the child grown
into a young man; he would make a companion of him; but perhaps he would
be a blockhead, a wretched creature, in any event. He was always
oppressed by the illegality of the infant's birth; it would have been
better if he had never been born! And Frederick would murmur, "Poor
child!" his heart swelling with feelings of unutterable sadness.

They often missed the last train. Then Madame Dambreuse would scold him
for his want of punctuality. He would invent some falsehood.

It was necessary to invent some explanations, too, to satisfy Rosanette.
She could not understand how he spent all his evenings; and when she
sent a messenger to his house, he was never there! One day, when he
chanced to be at home, the two women made their appearance almost at the
same time. He got the Marechale to go away, and concealed Madame
Dambreuse, pretending that his mother was coming up to Paris.

Ere long, he found these lies amusing. He would repeat to one the oath
which he had just uttered to the other, send them bouquets of the same
sort, write to them at the same time, and then would institute a
comparison between them. There was a third always present in his
thoughts. The impossibility of possessing her seemed to him a
justification of his perfidies, which were intensified by the fact that
he had to practise them alternately; and the more he deceived, no matter
which of the two, the fonder of him she grew, as if the love of one of
them added heat to that of the other, and, as if by a sort of emulation,
each of them were seeking to make him forget the other.

"Admire my confidence in you!" said Madame