Page:A Passionate Pilgrim and Other Tales (1875).djvu/459

Rh I'm everything horrible,—it's understood. Take your revenge, console yourself; you're too pretty a woman to have anything to complain of. Here 's a handsome young man sighing himself into a consumption for you. Listen to the poor fellow, and you 'll find that virtue is none the less becoming for being good-natured. You 'll see that it's not after all such a doleful world, and that there is even an advantage in having the most impudent of husbands." Madame Clairin paused; Longmore had turned very pale. "You may believe it," she said; "the speech took place in my presence; things were done in order. And now, Mr. Longmore,"—this with a smile which he was too troubled at the moment to appreciate, but which he remembered later with a kind of awe,—"we count upon you!"

"He said this to her, face to face, as you say it to me now?" Longmore asked slowly, after a silence.

"Word for word, and with the greatest politeness."

"And Madame de Mauves—what did she say?"

Madame Clairin smiled again. "To such a speech as that a woman says—nothing. She had been sitting with a piece of needlework, and I think she had not seen her husband since their quarrel the day before. He came in with the gravity of an ambassador, and I'm sure that when he made his demande en mariage his manner was not more respectful. He only wanted white gloves!" said Madame