"But, my child, I do not know how you can conceive that I should fall
in love with your husband; he is coarse and fat as a deputy of the
centre. He is short and ugly--Ah! I will allow that he is generous,
but that is all you can say for him, and this is a quality which is
all in all only to opera girls; so that you can understand, my dear,
that if I were choosing a lover, as you seem to suppose I am, I
wouldn't choose an old man like your baron. If I have given him any
hopes, if I have received him, it was certainly for the purpose of
amusing myself, and of giving you liberty; for I believed you had a
weakness for young Rostanges."

"I?" exclaimed Louise, "God preserve me from it, my dear; he is the
most intolerable coxcomb in the world. No, I assure you, I love my
husband! You may laugh as you choose; it is true. I know it may seem
ridiculous, but consider, he has made my fortune, he is no miser, and
he is everything to me, for it has been my unhappy lot to be left an
orphan. Now even if I did not love him, I ought to try to preserve his
esteem. Have I a family who will some day give me shelter?"

"Come, my darling, let us speak no more about it," said Emilie,
interrupting her friend, "for it tires me to death."

After a few trifling remarks the baroness left.

"How is this, monsieur?" cried Madame B-----, opening the door of the
closet where the baron was frozen with cold, for this incident took
place in winter; "how is this? Aren't you ashamed of yourself for not
adoring a little wife who is so interesting? Don't speak to me of
love; you may idolize me, as you say you do, for a certain time, but