The baron glanced at his wife, who, overcome with fatigue, had sunk to sleep in a corner of the carriage.  He compared, in spite of himself, the toilette of Louise and that of Emilie.  Now on occasions of this kind the presence of a wife is singularly calculated to sharpen the unquenchable desires of a forbidden love.  Moreover, the glances of the baron, directed alternately to his wife and to her friend, were easy to interpret, and Madame B----- interpreted them.

“Poor Louise,” she said, “she is overtired.  Going out does not suit her, her tastes are so simple.  At Ecouen she was always reading—­”

“And you, what used you to do?”

“I, sir?  Oh, I thought about nothing but acting comely.  It was my passion!”

“But why do you so rarely visit Madame de V-----?  We have a country
house at Saint-Prix, where we could have a comedy acted, in a little
theatre which I have built there.”

“If I have not visited Madame de V-----, whose fault is it?” she
replied.  “You are so jealous that you will not allow her either to
visit her friends or to receive them.”

“I jealous!” cried Monsieur de V-----, “after four years of marriage,
and after having had three children!”

“Hush,” said Emilie, striking the fingers of the baron with her fan, “Louise is not asleep!”

The carriage stopped, and the baron offered his hand to his wife’s fair friend and helped her to get out.

“I hope,” said Madame B-----, “that you will not prevent Louise from
coming to the ball which I am giving this week.”

The baron made her a respectful bow.

This ball was a triumph of Madame B-----’s and the ruin of the husband
of Louise; for he became desperately enamored of Emilie, to whom he
would have sacrificed a hundred lawful wives.

Some months after that evening on which the baron gained some hopes of succeeding with his wife’s friend, he found himself one morning at the house of Madame B-----, when the maid came to announce the Baroness de V-----.

“Ah!” cried Emilie, “if Louise were to see you with me at such an hour as this, she would be capable of compromising me.  Go into that closet and don’t make the least noise.”

The husband, caught like a mouse in a trap, concealed himself in the closet.

“Good-day, my dear!” said the two women, kissing each other.

“Why are you come so early?” asked Emilie.

“Oh! my dear, cannot you guess?  I came to have an understanding with you!”

“What, a duel?”

“Precisely, my dear.  I am not like you, not I!  I love my husband and am jealous of him.  You! you are beautiful, charming, you have the right to be a coquette, you can very well make fun of B-----, to whom your virtue seems to be of little importance.  But as you have plenty of lovers in society, I beg you that you will leave me my husband.  He is always at your house, and he certainly would not come unless you were the attraction.”