“I took veal this morning to please Mme. de Bargeton, who is very fond of veal, and my stomach has been very uneasy since,” he would tell you.  “I knew how it would be; it never suits me.  How do you explain it?” Or, very likely—­

“I am just about to ring for a glass of eau sucree; will you have some at the same time?”

Or, “I am going to take a ride to-morrow; I am going over to see my father-in-law.”

These short observations did not permit of discussion; a “Yes” or “No,” extracted from his interlocutor, the conversation dropped dead.  Then M. de Bargeton mutely implored his visitor to come to his assistance.  Turning westward his old asthmatic pug-dog countenance, he gazed at you with big, lustreless eyes, in a way that said, “You were saying?”

The people whom he loved best were bores anxious to talk about themselves; he listened to them with an unfeigned and delicate interest which so endeared him to the species that all the twaddlers of Angouleme credited M. de Bargeton with more understanding than he chose to show, and were of the opinion that he was underrated.  So it happened that when these persons could find nobody else to listen to them, they went off to give M. de Bargeton the benefit of the rest of the story, argument, or what not, sure beforehand of his eulogistic smile.  Madame de Bargeton’s rooms were always crowded, and generally her husband felt quite at ease.  He interested himself in the smallest details; he watched those who came in and bowed and smiled, and brought the new arrivals to his wife; he lay in wait for departing visitors, and went with them to the door, taking leave of them with that eternal smile.  When conversation grew lively, and he saw that every one was interested in one thing or another, he stood, happy and mute, planted like a swan on both feet, listening, to all appearance, to a political discussion; or he looked over the card-players’ hands without a notion of what it was all about, for he could not play at any game; or he walked about and took snuff to promote digestion.  Anais was the bright side of his life; she made it unspeakably pleasant for him.  Stretched out at full length in his armchair, he watched admiringly while she did her part as hostess, for she talked for him.  It was a pleasure, too, to him to try to see the point in her remarks; and as it was often a good while before he succeeded, his smiles appeared after a delay, like the explosion of a shell which has entered the earth and worked up again.  His respect for his wife, moreover, almost amounted to adoration.  And so long as we can adore, is there not happiness enough in life?  Anais’ husband was as docile as a child who asks nothing better than to be told what to do; and, generous and clever woman as she was, she had taken no undue advantage of his weaknesses.  She had taken care of him as you take care of a cloak; she kept him brushed, neat, and tidy, looked closely after him, and humored him; and humored,