the beautiful Madame
Guillardin's husband.' For you will never be anything else in life, my
dear fellow, but the husband of a pretty woman."

This time, Guillardin could bear it no longer. Pale with rage, he
bounded forward, to seize and dash into the fire, after first tearing
from it the pretty green palm wreath, this insolent and raving coat; but
a door opens and a well-known voice, tinged with a mixture of contempt
and mild condescension, opportunely awakes him from his horrible
nightmare:

"Oh! that is just like you, asleep at the corner of the fire on such an
important day!"

And Madame Guillardin stands before him, tall and still handsome,
although rather too imposing with her almost natural pink complexion,
her powdered hair, and the exaggerated brilliancy of her painted eyes.
With the gesture of the superior woman, she takes up the green-palmed
coat, and briskly, with a little smile, helps her husband to don it;
while he, poor man, still trembling with the horrors of his nightmare,
draws a deep sigh of relief and thinks to himself: "Thank goodness! It
was a dream!"

[Illustration: p224-235]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Artists' Wives, by Alphonse Daudet

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARTISTS' WIVES ***

***** This file should be named 22522.txt or 22522.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/2/22522/

Produced by David Widger

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with pub