longer."
Cornelie obeyed, and the next minute Madame Danglars left her
room in a charming loose dress, and came and sat down close to
Debray. Then she began thoughtfully to caress the little spaniel.
Lucien looked at her for a moment in silence. "Come, Hermine," he
said, after a short time, "answer candidly, — something vexes you —
is it not so?"
"Nothing," answered the baroness.
And yet, as she could scarcely breathe, she rose and went
towards a looking-glass. "I am frightful to-night," she said.
Debray rose, smiling, and was about to contradict the baroness upon
this latter point, when the door opened suddenly. M. Danglars
appeared; Debray reseated himself. At the noise of the door Madame
Danglars turned round, and looked upon her husband with an
astonishment she took no trouble to conceal. "Good-evening,
madame," said the banker; "good-evening, M. Debray."
Probably the baroness thought this unexpected visit signified a
desire to make up for the sharp words he had uttered during the
day. Assuming a dignified air, she turned round to Debray, without
answering her husband. "Read me something, M. Debray," she said.
Debray, who was slightly disturbed at this visit, recovered himself
when he saw the calmness of the baroness, and took up a book marked
by a mother-of-pearl knife inlaid with gold. "Excuse me," said the
banker, "but you will tire yourself, baroness, by such late hours,
and M. Debray lives some distance from here."
Debray was petrified, not only to hear Danglars speak so calmly
and politely, but because it was apparent that beneath outward
politeness there really lurked a determined spirit of opposition to
anything his wife might wish to do. The baroness was also
surprised, and showed her astonishment by a look which would
doubtless have had some effect upon her husband if he had not been
intently occupied with the paper, where he was looking to see the
closing stock quotations. The result was, that the proud look
entirely failed of its purpose.closing stock quotations. The result was, that the proud look
entirely failed of its purpose.
"M. Lucien," said the baroness, "I assure you I have no desire
to sleep, and that I have a thousand things to tell you this
evening, which you must listen to, even though you slept while
hearing me."
"I am at your service, madame," replied Lucien coldly.
"My dear M. Debray," said the banker, "do not kill yourself
to-night listening to the follies of Madame Danglars, for you can
hear them as well to-morrow; but I claim to-night and will devote
it, if you will allow me, to talk over some serious matters with my
wife." This time the blow was so well aimed, and hit so directly,
that Lucien and the baroness were staggered, and they interrogated
each other with their eyes, as if to seek help against this
aggression, but the irresistible will of the master of the house
prevailed, and the husband was victorious.
"Do not think I wish to turn you out, my dear Debray," continued
Danglars; "oh, no, not at all. An unexpected occurrence forces me
to ask my wife to have a little conversation with me; it is so
rarely I make such a request, I am sure you cannot grudge it to
me." Debray muttered something, bowed and went out, knocking
himself against the edge of the door, like Nathan in "Athalie."
"It is extraordinary," he said, when the door was closed behind
him, "how easily these husbands, whom we ridicule, gain an
advantage over us."
Lucien having left, Danglars took his place on the sofa, closed
the open book, and placing himself in a dreadfully dictatorial
attitude, he began playing with the dog; but the animal, not liking
him as well as Debray, and attempting to bite him, Danglars seized
him by the skin of his neck and threw him upon a couch on the other
side of the room. The animal uttered a cry during the transit, but,
arrived at its destination, it crouched behind the cushions, and
stupefied at such unusual treatment remained silent and motionless.
"Do you know, sir," asked the baroness, "that you are improving?"Do you know, sir," asked the baroness, "that you are improving?
Generally you are only rude, but to-night you are brutal."
"It is because I am in a worse humor than usual," replied
Danglars. Hermine looked at the banker with supreme disdain. These
glances frequently exasperated the pride of Danglars, but this
evening he took no notice of them.
"And what have I to do with your ill-humor?" said the baroness,
irritated at the impassibility of her husband; "do these things
concern me? Keep your ill-humor at home in your money boxes, or,
since you have clerks whom you pay, vent it upon them."
"Not so," replied Danglars; "your advice is wrong, so I shall
not follow it. My money boxes are my Pactolus, as, I think, M.
Demoustier says, and I will not retard its course, or disturb its
calm. My clerks are honest men, who earn my fortune, whom I pay
much below their deserts, if I may value them according to what
they bring in; therefore I shall not get into a passion with them;
those with whom I will be in a passion are those who eat my
dinners, mount my horses, and exhaust my fortune."
"And pray who are the persons who exhaust your fortune? Explain
yourself more clearly, I beg, sir."
"Oh, make yourself easy! — I am not speaking riddles, and you
will soon know what I mean. The people who exhaust my fortune are
those who draw out 700,000 francs in the course of an hour."
"I do not understand you, sir," said the baroness, trying to
disguise the agitation of her voice and the flush of her face. "You
understand me perfectly, on the contrary," said Danglars: "but, if
you will persist, I will tell you that I have just lost 700,000
francs upon the Spanish loan."
"And pray," asked the baroness, "am I responsible for this
loss?"
"Why not?"
"Is it my fault you have lost 700,000 francs?"
"Certainly it is not mine."
"Once for all, sir," replied the baroness sharply, "I tell you I
will not hear cash named; it is a style of language I never heard
in the house of my parents or in that of my first husband."