“Alas! my beautiful Suzanne,” said the Bailiff, “it is no bad dream you have had, but, as it seems, a hideous reality.”
“Ah! I remember now,” responded Madame Magloire. Then, as if noticing for the first time that the lord of Vez was there:
“Ah! my lord,” she continued, “I hope you have repeated nothing to my husband of all those foolish things I told you?”
“And why not, dear lady?” asked the Baron.
“Because an honest woman knows how to protect herself, and has no need to keep on telling her husband a lot of nonsense like that.”
“On the contrary, Madame,” replied the Baron, “I have told my friend everything.”
“Do you mean that you have told him that during the whole of supper time that man was fondling my knee under the table?”
“I told him that, certainly.”
“Oh! the wretch!” exclaimed the Bailiff.
“And that when I stooped to pick up my table napkin, it was not that, but his hand, that I came across.”