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Updated: June 24, 2025
The Baron had at first observed the strictest decorum; but his passion for Madame Marneffe had ere long become so vehement, so greedy, that he would never quit her if he could help it. At first he dined there four times a week; then he thought it delightful to dine with her every day. Six months after his daughter's marriage he was paying her two thousand francs a month for his board.
Lisbeth, whom the Baron wished to see intimate with Madame Marneffe, that she might keep an eye on the couple, had already dined with Valerie; and she, on her part, anxious to have an ear in the Hulot house, made much of the old maid. It occurred to Valerie to invite Mademoiselle Fischer to a house-warming in the new apartments she was about to move into.
"He is begging my pardon, my dear, for an insulting proposal he has dared to make me. Unable to obtain my consent, my gentleman proposed to pay me " Crevel only longed to vanish into the cellar, through a trap, as is done on the stage. "Get up, Crevel," said Marneffe, laughing, "you are ridiculous. I can see by Valerie's manner that my honor is in no danger."
"Go to bed and sleep in peace," said Madame Marneffe. "Isn't she clever?" thought Crevel. "She has saved me. She is adorable!" As Marneffe disappeared, the Mayor took Valerie's hands and kissed them, leaving on them the traces of tears. "It shall all stand in your name," he said. "That is true love," she whispered in his ear. "Well, love for love. Hulot is below, in the street.
"Monsieur le Ministre, I beg your pardon. We are very poor. I have nothing to live on but my pay, and I have two children, and the one that is coming will have been brought into the family by Monsieur le Baron." "What a villain he looks!" said the Prince, pointing to Marneffe and addressing Marshal Hulot.
"What of him?" said she. "That cousin " "Is no cousin of mine," said she. "He is my cousin to the world and to Monsieur Marneffe. And if he were my lover, it would be no concern of yours. A tradesman who pays a woman to be revenged on another man, is, in my opinion, beneath the man who pays her for love of her. You did not care for me; all you saw in me was Monsieur Hulot's mistress.
"You owe your wife white bread to eat at least," said Madame Marneffe, smiling. The Baron, without taking offence at Lisbeth's tone, as despotic as Josepha's, got out of the room, only too glad to escape so importunate a question.
He spoke of decently deserting his wife, leaving her to herself as soon as Hortense should be married. The Baroness would then spend all her time with Hortense or the young Hulot couple; he was sure of her submission. "And then, my angel, my true life, my real home will be in the Rue Vanneau." "Bless me, how you dispose of me!" said Madame Marneffe. "And my husband " "That rag!"
"He is begging my pardon, my dear, for an insulting proposal he has dared to make me. Unable to obtain my consent, my gentleman proposed to pay me " Crevel only longed to vanish into the cellar, through a trap, as is done on the stage. "Get up, Crevel," said Marneffe, laughing, "you are ridiculous. I can see by Valerie's manner that my honor is in no danger."
In this primitive household, as he assured himself, he was the god as much as in his own. And Monsieur Marneffe seemed at a thousand leagues from suspecting that the Jupiter of his office intended to descend on his wife in a shower of gold; he was his august chief's humblest slave.
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