ve believed it of her!
B---is quite beside himself. Yesterday there was a row, it seems!"

"There has been one every day for months," muttered Dawney.

"But to leave without a word, and go no one knows where! B---is 'viveur'
no doubt, mais, mon Dieu, que voulezvous? She was always a poor, pale
thing. Why! when my---" he flourished his cigar; "I was not
always---what I should have been---one lives in a world of flesh and
blood---we are not all angels---que diable! But this is a very vulgar
business. She goes off; leaves everything---without a word; and B---is
very fond of her. These things are not done!" the starched bosom of his
shirt seemed swollen by indignation.

Mr. Treffry, with a heavy hand on the table, eyed him sideways. Dawney
said slowly:

"B---is a beast; I'm sorry for the poor woman; but what can she do
alone?"

"There is, no doubt, a man," put in Sarelli.

Herr Paul muttered: "Who knows?"

"What is B---going to do?" said Dawney.

"Ah!" said Herr Paul. "He is fond of her. He is a chap of resolution,
he will get her back. He told me: 'Well, you know, I shall follow her
wherever she goes till she comes back.' He will do it, he is a
determined chap; he will follow her wherever she goes."

Mr. Treffry drank his wine off at a gulp, and sucked his moustache in
sharply.

"She was a fool to marry him," said Dawney; "they haven't a point in
common; she hates him like poison, and she's the better of the two. But
it doesn't pay a woman to run off like that. B---had better hurry up,
though. What do you think, sir?" he said to Mr. Treffry.

"Eh?" said Mr. Treffry; "how should I know? Ask Paul there, he's one of
your moral men, or Count Sarelli."

The latter said impassively: "If I cared for her I should very likely
kill her--if not--" he shrugged his shoulders.

Harz, who was watching, was reminded of his other words at dinner, "wild
beasts whom I would tear to pieces." He looked with interest at this
quiet man who said these extremely ferocious things, and thought: 'I
should like to paint that fellow.'

Herr Paul twirled his wine-glass in his fingers. "There are family
ties," he said, "there is society, there is decency; a wife should be
with her husband. B---will do quite right. He must go after her; she
will not perhaps come back at first; he will follow her; she will begin
to think, 'I am helpless--I am ridiculous!' A woman is soon beaten.
They will return. She is once more with h