stress, the lover went away in
the bright sunlight to take an afternoon train, still attended by the
husband, who insisted upon escorting him to the station.

Madame Dobson sat for a moment with Frantz and Sidonie under a little
arbor which a climbing vine studded with pink buds; then, realizing
that she was in the way, she returned to the salon, and as before, while
Georges was there, began to play and sing softly and with expression.
In the silent garden, that muffled music, gliding between the branches,
seemed like the cooing of birds before the storm.

At last they were alone. Under the lattice of the arbor, still bare and
leafless, the May sun shone too bright. Sidonie shaded her eyes with
her hand as she watched the people passing on the quay. Frantz likewise
looked out, but in another direction; and both of them, affecting to be
entirely independent of each other, turned at the same instant with the
same gesture and moved by the same thought.

"I have something to say to you," he said, just as she opened her mouth.

"And I to you," she replied gravely; "but come in here; we shall be more
comfortable."

And they entered together a little summer-house at the foot of the
garden.

BOOK 3.

CHAPTER XIV. EXPLANATION

By slow degrees Sidonie sank to her former level, yes, even lower. From
the rich, well-considered bourgeoise to which her marriage had raised
her, she descended the ladder to the rank of a mere toy. By dint of
travelling in railway carriages with fantastically dressed courtesans,
with their hair worn over their eyes like a terrier's, or falling over
the back 'a la Genevieve de Brabant', she came at last to resemble them.
She transformed herself into a blonde for two months, to the unbounded
amazement of Rizer, who could not understand how his doll was so
changed. As for Georges, all these eccentricities amused him; it seemed
to him that he had ten women in one. He was the real husband, the master
of the house.

To divert Sidonie's thoughts, he had provided a simulacrum of society
for her--his bachelor friends, a few fast tradesmen, almost no women,
women have too sharp eyes. Madame Dobson was the only friend of
Sidonie's sex.

They organized grand dinner-parties, excursions on the water, fireworks.
From day to day Risler's position became more absurd, more distressing.
When he came home in the evening, tired out, shabbily dressed, he must
hurry up to his room to dress.

"We have