he had ever appeared to show
more confidence in any one else than in himself. He never had suspected
any one, he was so calm, so sure of her, so confident.

But, now he thought of it, she had had a friend, an intimate friend, who
for almost a year had dined with them three times a week. Tancret, good
old Tancret, whom he, Bendel, loved as a brother and whom he continued to
see on the sly, since his wife, he did not know why, had grown angry at
the charming fellow.

He stopped to think, looking over the past with anxious eyes. Then he
grew angry at himself for harboring this shameful insinuation of the
defiant, jealous, bad ego which lives in all of us. He blamed and accused
himself when he remembered the visits and the demeanor of this friend
whom his wife had dismissed for no apparent reason. But, suddenly, other
memories returned to him, similar ruptures due to the vindictive
character of Madame Bondel, who never pardoned a slight. Then he laughed
frankly at himself for the doubts which he had nursed; and he remembered
the angry looks of his wife as he would tell her, when he returned at
night: "I saw good old Tancret, and he wished to be remembered to you,"
and he reassured himself.

She would invariably answer: "When you see that gentleman you can tell
him that I can very well dispense with his remembrances." With what an
irritated, angry look she would say these words! How well one could feel
that she did not and would not forgive--and he had suspected her
even for a second? Such foolishness!

But why did she grow so angry? She never had given the exact reason for
this quarrel. She still bore him that grudge! Was it?--But
no--no--and Bondel declared that he was lowering himself by
even thinking of such things.

Yes, he was undoubtedly lowering himself, but he could not help thinking
of it, and he asked himself with terror if this thought which had entered
into his mind had not come to stop, if he did not carry in his heart the
seed of fearful torment. He knew himself; he was a man to think over his
doubts, as formerly he would ruminate over his commercial operations, for
days and nights, endlessly weighing the pros and the cons.

He was already becoming excited; he was walking fast and losing his
calmness. A thought cannot be downed. It is intangible, cannot be caught,
cannot be killed.

Suddenly a plan occurred to him; it was bold, so bold that at first he
doubted whether he would carry it out.

Each tim