ance, and the strangest ideas passed
through my mind while we trotted along the beautiful road between two
hedges. I was saying to myself: 'Let's see, what can this mean? Here is
a husband who cannot doubt that his wife and I are on more than friendly
terms, and yet he invites me to his house, receives me like an old
friend and seems to say: "Go ahead, my friend, the road is clear!"'

"Then I am introduced to a very pleasant gentleman, who seems already
to have settled down in the house, and--and who is perhaps trying to
get out of it, and who seems as pleased at my arrival as the husband
himself.

"Is it some former admirer who wishes to retire? One might think
so. But, then, would these two men tacitly have come to one of these
infamous little agreements so common in society? And it is proposed to
me that I should quietly enter into the pact and carry it out. All hands
and arms are held out to me. All doors and hearts are open to me.

"And what about her? An enigma. She cannot be ignorant of everything.
However--however--Well, I cannot understand it.

"The dinner was very gay and cordial. On leaving the table the husband
and his friend began to play cards, while I went out on the porch to
look at the moonlight with madame. She seemed to be greatly affected
by nature, and I judged that the moment for my happiness was near. That
evening she was really delightful. The country had seemed to make her
more tender. Her long, slender waist looked pretty on this stone porch
beside a great vase in which grew some flowers. I felt like dragging
her out under the trees, throwing myself at her feet and speaking to her
words of love.

"Her husband's voice called 'Louise!'

"'Yes, dear.'

"'You are forgetting the tea.'

"'I'll go and see about it, my friend.'

"We returned to the house, and she gave us some tea. When the two men
had finished playing cards, they were visibly tired. I had to go to my
room. I did not get to sleep till late, and then I slept badly.

"An excursion was decided upon for the following afternoon, and we went
in an open carriage to visit some ruins. She and I were in the back of
the vehicle and they were opposite us, riding backward. The conversation
was sympathetic and agreeable. I am an orphan, and it seemed to me as
though I had just found my family, I felt so at home with them.

"Suddenly, as she had stretched out her foot between her husband's legs,
he murmured reproachfully: 'Louise, please