Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 22, 2025
She slammed the door and left the room, saying: "Well! if that isn't too much!" Bondel remained alone, ill at ease. That insolent, provoking laugh had touched him to the quick. He went outside, walked, dreamed. The realization of the loneliness of his new life made him sad and morbid. The neighbor, whom he had met that morning, came to him with outstretched hands.
Stamping her foot, she stammered: "Do you think that that fool, that idiot, knows anything about it?" Bondel did not grow angry; he was reasoning clearly: "Excuse me. This gentleman is no fool.
Bondel was a merchant who had retired from active business after saving enough to allow him to live quietly; he had rented a little house at Saint-Germain and lived there with his wife. He was a quiet man with very decided opinions; he had a certain degree of education and read serious newspapers; nevertheless, he appreciated the gaulois wit.
I'll grant you that that may be the case for the wife, but as for him " She became furious, exclaiming: "For him as well as for her. They are both in disgrace; it's a public shame." Bondel, very calm, asked: "First of all, is it true? Who can assert such a thing as long as no one has been caught in the act?" Madame Bondel was growing uneasy; she snapped: "What? Who can assert it?
Well, he would take the train to Paris, go to Tancret, and bring him back with him that very evening, assuring him that his wife's mysterious anger had disappeared. But how would Madame Bondel act? What a scene there would be! What anger! what scandal! What of it? that would be revenge!
Then the monotony of loneliness had soured each of them a little; and the quiet happiness which they had hoped and waited for with the coming of riches did not appear. One June morning, just as they were sitting down to breakfast, Bondel asked: "Do you know the people who live in the little red cottage at the end of the Rue du Berceau?" Madame Bondel was out of sorts.
The discussion gradually grew more heated, always on the same subject for lack of others. Madame Bondel obstinately refused to say what she had heard about these neighbors, allowing things to be understood without saying exactly what they were. Bendel would shrug his shoulders, grin, and exasperate his wife. She finally cried out: "Well! that gentleman is deceived by his wife, there!"
Suddenly a plan occurred to him; it was bold, so bold that at first he doubted whether he would carry it out. Each time that he met Tancret, his friend would ask for news of Madame Bondel, and Bondel would answer: "She is still a little angry." Nothing more. Good Lord! What a fool he had been! Perhaps!
Stamping her foot, she stammered: "Do you think that that fool, that idiot, knows anything about it?" Bondel did not grow angry; he was reasoning clearly: "Excuse me. This gentleman is no fool.
She continued: "You would have done just as well to avoid him." "Why?" "Because there are rumors about them." "What kind?" "Oh! rumors such as one often hears!" M. Bondel was, unfortunately, a little hasty. He exclaimed: "My dear, you know that I abhor gossip. As for those people, I find them very pleasant." She asked testily: "The wife also?" "Why, yes; although I have barely seen her."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking