der to extract the desired
confession.

"Without doubt," he at last made answer gravely.

Thereupon she again sank down at his feet. She was shaking with
uproarious laughter, and she stuttered and dealt him little slaps.

"No, it's too funny! There's no one like you; you're a marvel. But, my
poor pet, you must just have been stupid! When a man doesn't know--oh,
it is so comical! Good heavens, I should have liked to have seen you!
And it came off well, did it? Now tell me something about it! Oh, do, do
tell me!"

She overwhelmed him with questions, forgetting nothing and requiring the
veriest details. And she laughed such sudden merry peals which doubled
her up with mirth, and her chemise slipped and got turned down to such
an extent, and her skin looked so golden in the light of the big fire,
that little by little the count described to her his bridal night. He no
longer felt at all awkward. He himself began to be amused at last as
he spoke. Only he kept choosing his phrases, for he still had a certain
sense of modesty. The young woman, now thoroughly interested, asked him
about the countess. According to his account, she had a marvelous figure
but was a regular iceberg for all that.

"Oh, get along with you!" he muttered indolently. "You have no cause to
be jealous."

Nana had ceased laughing, and she now resumed her former position and,
with her back to the fire, brought her knees up under her chin with her
clasped hands. Then in a serious tone she declared:

"It doesn't pay, dear boy, to look like a ninny with one's wife the
first night."

"Why?" queried the astonished count.

"Because," she replied slowly, assuming a doctorial expression.

And with that she looked as if she were delivering a lecture and shook
her head at him. In the end, however, she condescended to explain
herself more lucidly.

"Well, look here! I know how it all happens. Yes, dearie, women don't
like a man to be foolish. They don't say anything because there's such a
thing as modesty, you know, but you may be sure they think about it for
a jolly long time to come. And sooner or later, when a man's been an
ignoramus, they go and make other arrangements. That's it, my pet."

He did not seem to understand. Whereupon she grew more definite still.
She became maternal and taught him his lesson out of sheer goodness
of heart, as a friend might do. Since she had discovered him to be
a cuckold the information had weighed on her spirits; she