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32 THE CONFESSION OF A FOOL
"I never read other people’s letters," he answered,
with hypocritical pride.
" And I never write to another man’s wife without that
man’s full knowledge of the correspondence."
He glanced at my letter, and, with an enigmatical
smile, enclosed it in his own.
I saw nothing of him during the rest of the week, until
I met him one evening at a street corner. He seemed
very pleased to see me, and we went into a café to have
a chat.
He had just returned from the country, where he had
spent a few days with his wife’s cousin. Without ever
having met that charming person, I was easily able to
draw a mental picture of her from the traces of her
influence on the Baron’s character. He had lost his
haughtiness and his melancholy. There was a gay, some-
what dissipated look on his face, and he enriched his
vocabulary by a few expressions of doubtful taste ; even
the tone of his voice was altered.
"A weak mind," I said to myself, "swayed by every
emotion ; a blank slate on which the lightest of women
may write sense or folly, according to her sweet will."
He behaved like the hero in comic opera ; he joked,
told funny tales and was in boisterous spirits. His charm
was gone with his uniform ; and when, after supper,
slightly intoxicated, he suggested that we should call on
certain female friends of his, I thought him positively
repulsive. With the exception of the neckpiece, the sash
and the uniform, he really possessed no attractions
whatever.
When his intoxication had reached its climax, he lost
all sense of shame and began to discuss the secrets of his
married life. I interrupted him indignantly and proposed
that we should go home. He assured me that his wife
allowed him full license during her absence. At first I
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