Part 27 (2/2)
”It seems that we are fated always to meet here; it is very strange, really.”
It was Lucile again. I had not seen her since my wedding day. She was dressed very elegantly, and she was alone.
”Is it you, madame?”
”Yes, monsieur, I am obliged to come to the garden to meet you.”
”It is true that in Paris, when people are not looking for each other----”
”And even if they are looking for each other, that is no reason why they should find each other. Have you just been married again, monsieur?”
”No, madame. That is well enough when one is a bachelor--to take a new wife every week.”
”You have reformed now, I suppose?”
”Yes, madame, entirely.”
”I congratulate you. And yet, although you have reformed, you look very much to me as if you were here to keep an appointment.”
”That is true, madame, but appointments do not always mean love-affairs.”
”I don't know what they mean; but you are waiting for someone, and I'll bet that it's a woman.”
”You are not mistaken; moreover, a woman whom I am going to take to dinner in a private room at a restaurant.”
”You have reformed with a vengeance! But I should have been more surprised to find it the other way. It was well worth while to get married!”
”Madame, I will not prolong your error; it is my wife for whom I am waiting, and whom I agreed to meet here.”
”Your wife! I beg pardon, monsieur, pray receive my apology. I had no suspicion that you had become a Philemon. Come, joking aside, is it really your wife that you are waiting for?”
”Yes, to be sure. What is there so extraordinary in that?”
”Do you mean that you are still in love with your wife?”
”Still! why it seems to me that I was married only yesterday!”
”Bless my soul! how touching!”
Lucile bit her lips with a sneering smile. I had no wish to prolong my conversation with her, although I was certain that my wife would not come so early. I made a motion to bid her adieu; she grasped my arm.
”What, you are going to leave me so soon? Mon Dieu! don't tremble so; your wife will not come yet.”
”I trust not; for, frankly, I would not like to have her see me talking with you.”
”Would she whip you?”
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