The Physiology of Marriage, part 3 | Page 7

carriage, and I started on my journey quite ignorant of my destination.
Every inquiry I made was answered by a peal of laughter. If I had not
been aware that this was a woman of great passion, that she had long
loved the Marquis de V-----, that she must have known I was aware of
it, I should have believed myself in good luck; but she knew the
condition of my heart, and the Comtesse de -----. I therefore rejected all
presumptuous ideas and bided my time. At the first stop, a change of

horses was supplied with the swiftness of lightning and we started
afresh. The matter was becoming serious. I asked with some insistency,
where this joke was to end.
"Where?" she said, laughing. "In the pleasantest place in the world, but
can't you guess? I'll give you a thousand chances. Give it up, for you
will never guess. We are going to my husband's house. Do you know
him?"
"Not in the least."
"So much the better, I thought you didn't. But I hope you will like him.
We have lately become reconciled. Negotiations went on for six
months; and we have been writing to one another for a month. I think it
is very kind of me to go and look him up."
"It certainly is, but what am I going to do there? What good will I be in
this reconciliation?"
"Ah, that is my business. You are young, amiable, unconventional; you
suit me and will save me from the tediousness of a tete-a-tete."
"But it seems odd to me, to choose the day or the night of a
reconciliation to make us acquainted; the awkwardness of the first
interview, the figure all three of us will cut,--I don't see anything
particularly pleasant in that."
"I have taken possession of you for my own amusement!" she said with
an imperious air, "so please don't preach."
I saw she was decided, so surrendered myself to circumstances. I began
to laugh at my predicament and we became exceedingly merry. We
again changed horses. The mysterious torch of night lit up a sky of
extreme clearness and shed around a delightful twilight. We were
approaching the spot where our tete-a-tete must end. She pointed out to
me at intervals the beauty of the landscape, the tranquillity of the night,
the all-pervading silence of nature. In order to admire these things in
company as it was natural we should, we turned to the same window
and our faces touched for a moment. In a sudden shock she seized my
hand, and by a chance which seemed to me extraordinary, for the stone
over which our carriage had bounded could not have been very large, I
found Madame de T----- in my arms. I do not know what we were
trying to see; what I am sure of is that the objects before our eyes began
in spite of the full moon to grow misty, when suddenly I was released
from her weight, and she sank into the back cushions of the carriage.

"Your object," she said, rousing herself from a deep reverie, "is
possibly to convince me of the imprudence of this proceeding. Judge,
therefore, of my embarrassment!"
"My object!" I replied, "what object can I have with regard to you?
What a delusion! You look very far ahead; but of course the sudden
surprise or turn of chance may excuse anything."
"You have counted, then, upon that chance, it seems to me?"
We had reached our destination, and before we were aware of it, we
had entered the court of the chateau. The whole place was brightly lit
up. Everything wore a festal air, excepting the face of its master, who at
the sight of me seemed anything but delighted. He came forward and
expressed in somewhat hesitating terms the tenderness proper to the
occasion of a reconciliation. I understood later on that this
reconciliation was absolutely necessary from family reasons. I was
presented to him and was coldly greeted. He extended his hand to his
wife, and I followed the two, thinking of my part in the past, in the
present and in the future. I passed through apartments decorated with
exquisite taste. The master in this respect had gone beyond all the
ordinary refinement of luxury, in the hope of reanimating, by the
influence of voluptuous imagery, a physical nature that was dead. Not
knowing what to say, I took refuge in expressions of admiration. The
goddess of the temple, who was quite ready to do the honors, accepted
my compliments.
"You have not seen anything," she said. "I must take you to the
apartments of my husband."
"Madame, five years ago I caused them to be pulled down."
"Oh! Indeed!" said she.
At the dinner, what must