r she is very punctual, but I thought that something
might have accidentally delayed her. However, half-an-hour passed, then
an hour, an hour and a half, and then I knew that something must have
detained her; a sick headache, perhaps, or some annoying visitor. That
sort of waiting is very vexatious, that ... useless waiting ... very
annoying and enervating. At last, I made up my mind to go out, and not
knowing what to do, I went to her and found her reading a novel."

"Well!" I said to her. And she replied quite calmly:

"My dear I could not come; I was hindered."

"How?"

"My ... something else."

"What was it?

"A very annoying visit."

"I saw that she would not tell me the true reason, and as she was very
calm, I did not trouble myself any more about it, and hoped to make up
for lost time with the other, the next day, and on the Tuesday, I was
very ... very excited, and amorous in expectation of the public
official's little wife, and I was surprised that she had not come before
the appointed time, and I looked at the clock every moment, and watched
the hands impatiently, but the quarter past, then the half-hour, then
two o'clock. I could not sit still any longer, and walked up and down
very soon in great strides, putting my face against the window, and my
ears to the door, to listen whether she was not coming upstairs."

"Half-past two, three o'clock! I seized my hat, and rushed to her house.
She was reading a novel my dear fellow! 'Well!' I said, anxiously, and
she replied as calmly as usual: 'I was hindered, and could not come.'

"'By what?'

"'An annoying visit.'

"Of course, I immediately thought that they both knew everything, but
she seemed so calm and quiet, that I set aside my suspicions, and
thought it was only some strange coincidence, as I could not believe in
such dissimulation on her part, and so, after half-an-hour's friendly
talk, which was, however, interrupted a dozen times by her little girl
coming in and out of the room. I went away, very much annoyed. Just
imagine the next day...."

"The same thing happened?"

"Yes, and the next also. And that went on for three weeks without any
explanation, without anything explaining that strange conduct to me, the
secret of which I suspected, however."

"They knew everything?"

"I should think so, by George. But how? Ah! I had a great deal of
anxiety before I found it out."

"How did you manage it at last?"

"From their letters, for on th