rm.

"After all, even though he should get angry, so much the worse! He has
behaved too badly to me to call for any anxiety about him on my part! I
have no assurance that she is his mistress! He has denied it. So then I
am free to act as I please!"

He could no longer abandon the desire of taking this step. He wished to
make a trial of his own strength, so that one day, all of a sudden, he
polished his boots himself, bought white gloves, and set forth on his
way, substituting himself for Frederick, and almost imagining that he
was the other by a singular intellectual evolution, in which there was,
at the same time, vengeance and sympathy, imitation and audacity.

He announced himself as "Doctor Deslauriers."

Madame Arnoux was surprised, as she had not sent for any physician.

"Ha! a thousand apologies!--'tis a doctor of law! I have come in
Monsieur Moreau's interest."

This name appeared to produce a disquieting effect on her mind.

"So much the better!" thought the ex-law-clerk.

"Since she has a liking for him, she will like me, too!" buoying up his
courage with the accepted idea that it is easier to supplant a lover
than a husband.

He referred to the fact that he had the pleasure of meeting her on one
occasion at the law-courts; he even mentioned the date. This remarkable
power of memory astonished Madame Arnoux. He went on in a tone of mild
affectation:

"You have already found your affairs a little embarrassing?"

She made no reply.

"Then it must be true."

He began to chat about one thing or another, about her house, about the
works; then, noticing some medallions at the sides of the mirror:

"Ha! family portraits, no doubt?"

He remarked that of an old lady, Madame Arnoux's mother.

"She has the appearance of an excellent woman, a southern type."

And, on being met with the objection that she was from Chartres:

"Chartres! pretty town!"

He praised its cathedral and public buildings, and coming back to the
portrait, traced resemblances between it and Madame Arnoux, and cast
flatteries at her indirectly. She did not appear to be offended at this.
He took confidence, and said that he had known Arnoux a long time.

"He is a fine fellow, but one who compromises himself. Take this
mortgage, for example--one can't imagine such a reckless act----"

"Yes, I know," said she, shrugging her shoulders.

This involuntary evidence of contempt induced Deslauriers to continue.
"That kaolin business