The professor walked through the garden into a pavilion at one of its
corners, where he lived alone in order not to be disturbed by his
wife.

He went up the stairway leading to his little room, and complained so
much of his pains in the stomach that Madame Adolphe filled him with
camomile tea.

"Ah, here is a carriage! It is Madame returning in great anxiety, I am
sure," said Madame Adolphe, giving to the professor his sixth cup of
camomile tea. "Now, sir, I hope that you will be able to drink it
without me. Do not let it fall all over your bed. You know how Madame
would laugh. You are very happy to have a little wife who is so
amiable and so joyful."

"Say nothing to her, my child," exclaimed the professor, whose
features expressed a sort of childish fear.

The truly great man is always more or less a child.



VIII

THIS SHOWS THAT THE WIFE OF A MAN OF SCIENCE IS VERY UNHAPPY

"Well, good-bye. Return in the cab, it is paid for," Madame Marmus was
saying when Madame Adolphe arrived at the door.

The cab had already turned the corner. Madame Adolphe, not having seen