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Updated: June 26, 2025
"Is it understood that we can rely on you for to-morrow evening?" asked Madame Deberle. Helene no longer had the will to decline. She would see whether it were possible when she reached the street. It finished by their being the last to leave. Pauline and Jeanne already stood on the opposite pavement awaiting them. But a tearful voice brought them to a halt.
Jeanne and Lucien played at their feet. There would be long intervals of silence, and then Madame Deberle, who disliked reverie, would chatter for hours, quite satisfied with the silent acquiescence of Helene, and rattling off again if the other even so much as nodded.
Helene, charmed by her hostess's excessive kindness, did not move; there was nothing of the fidget in her, and she would of her own accord remain seated for hours. However, as the servant announced three ladies in succession Madame Berthier, Madame de Guiraud, and Madame Levasseur she thought she ought to rise. "Oh! pray stop," exclaimed Madame Deberle; "I must show you my son."
"Oh, it's you!" she exclaimed, in a voice loud enough to be heard by everybody. "It seems you go in for swimming now." He did not guess her meaning, but nevertheless replied, by way of a joke: "Certainly; I once saved a Newfoundland dog from drowning." The ladies thought this extremely funny, and even Madame Deberle seemed disarmed.
Madame Deberle, calm and dignified, declared that they ought to be left alone, and would acquit themselves very well. At one end of the room sat Helene and some other ladies laughing at the scene which the table presented; all the rosy mouths were eating with the full strength of their beautiful white teeth.
Malignon, however, defended himself. He had no knowledge of this girl Florence; he had never in his life spoken a word to her. They had possibly seen him with a lady: he was sometimes in the company of the wife of a friend of his. Besides, who had seen him? He wanted proofs, witnesses. "Pauline," hastily asked Madame Deberle, raising her voice, "did you not meet him with Florence?"
"My father, my sister Madame Grandjean." The conversation was turning on children and the ailments which give mothers so much worry when Miss Smithson, an English governess, appeared with a little boy clinging to her hand. Madame Deberle scolded her in English for having kept them waiting.
"By the way," broke in Madame Berthier, addressing Juliette, "didn't Monsieur Malignon give you lessons in swimming?" Helene noticed a shadow of vexation, of sudden annoyance, pass over Madame Deberle's face. Several times already she had fancied that, on Malignon's name being brought unexpectedly into the conversation, Madame Deberle suddenly seemed perturbed.
She was dazed; she thought she had dreamt it all the words she had heard, Juliette's secret intrigue, and its consequences. If it had all been true, Henri would surely have been at her side and ere this both would have quitted the house. "Will you take a cup of tea?" She smiled and thanked Madame Deberle, who had kept a place for her at the table.
For some time he chattered away: he had been sent for, but he would always be exceedingly pleased to enter into consultation with his renowned fellow-practitioner. "Oh! no doubt, no doubt," stammered Doctor Deberle, whose ears were buzzing.
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