e we any need to show it and to paste it up on all
the walls? You are really stupid. We will say that the Count de Vaudrec
left his fortune between us. That is all. But you cannot accept this
legacy without my authorization. I will only give it on condition of a
division, which will hinder me from becoming a laughing stock."

She looked at him again with a penetrating glance, and said: "As you
like. I am agreeable."

Then he rose, and began to walk up and down again. He seemed to be
hesitating anew, and now avoided his wife's penetrating glance. He was
saying: "No, certainly not. Perhaps it would be better to give it up
altogether. That is more worthy, more correct, more honorable. And yet
by this plan nothing could be imagined against us--absolutely nothing.
The most unscrupulous people could only admit things as they were." He
paused in front of Madeleine. "Well, then, if you like, darling, I will
go back alone to Maitre Lamaneur to explain matters to him and consult
him. I will tell him of my scruples, and add that we have arrived at the
notion of a division to prevent gossip. From the moment that I accept
half this inheritance, it is plain that no one has the right to smile.
It is equal to saying aloud: 'My wife accepts because I accept--I, her
husband, the best judge of what she may do without compromising herself.
Otherwise a scandal would have arisen.'"

Madeleine merely murmured: "Just as you like."

He went on with a flow of words: "Yes, it is all as clear as daylight
with this arrangement of a division in two. We inherit from a friend who
did not want to make any difference between us, any distinction; who did
not wish to appear to say: 'I prefer one or the other after death, as I
did during life.' He liked the wife best, be it understood, but in
leaving the fortune equally to both, he wished plainly to express that
his preference was purely platonic. And you may be sure that, if he had
thought of it, that is what he would have done. He did not reflect. He
did not foresee the consequences. As you said very appropriately just
now, it was you to whom he offered flowers every week, it is to you he
wished to leave his last remembrance, without taking into consideration
that--"

She checked him, with a shade of irritation: "All right; I understand.
You have no need to make so many explanations. Go to the notary's at
once."

He stammered, reddening: "You are right. I am off."

He took his hat, and then, at t