These last words gave me the key to the whole mystery, and I saw how I stood.

“But why should you have come so soon?” I asked him; “it would have been more prudent to have waited a few days.”

“I foresaw that; and it is only chance that has brought me here.  I am supposed to be on my way back from a neighboring country house.  But has not Madame de T----- taken you into her secret?  I am surprised at her want of confidence, after all you have done for us.”

“My dear friend,” I replied, “she doubtless had her reasons.  Perhaps I did not play my part very well.”

“Has everything been very pleasant?  Tell me the particulars; come, tell me.”

“Now wait a moment.  I did not know that this was to be a comedy; and
although Madame de T----- gave me a part in the play--”

“It wasn’t a very nice one.”

“Do not worry yourself; there are no bad parts for good actors.”

“I understand, you acquitted yourself well.”

“Admirably.”

“And Madame de T-----?”

“Is adorable.”

“To think of being able to win such a woman!” said he, stopping short in our walk, and looking triumphantly at me.  “Oh, what pains I have taken with her!  And I have at last brought her to a point where she is perhaps the only woman in Paris on whose fidelity a man may infallibly count!”

“You have succeeded—?”

“Yes; in that lies my special talent.  Her inconstancy was mere frivolity, unrestrained imagination.  It was necessary to change that disposition of hers, but you have no idea of her attachment to me.  But really, is she not charming?”

“I quite agree with you.”

“And yet entre nous I recognize one fault in her.  Nature in giving her everything, has denied her that flame divine which puts the crown on all other endowments; while she rouses in others the ardor of passion, she feels none herself, she is a thing of marble.”

“I am compelled to believe you, for I have had no opportunity of judging, but do you think that you know that woman as well as if you were her husband?  It is possible to be deceived.  If I had not dined yesterday with the veritable—­I should take you—­”

“By the way, has he been good?”

“Oh, I was received like a dog!”

“I understand.  Let us go in, let us look for Madame de T-----.  She
must be up by this time.”

“But should we not out of decency begin with the husband?” I said to him.

“You are right.  Let us go to your room, I wish to put on a little powder.  But tell me, did he really take you for her lover?”

“You may judge by the way he receives me; but let us go at once to his apartment.”