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THE CONFESSION OF A FOOL 105
The four of us raised our glasses. Tlie Baron looked
at his wife
—
"Drink to your reconciliation with Matilda," he
pleaded.
"Your health, little M’itch !
" exclaimed the Baroness
with a smile, and turnine; to me she added
—
"I must tell you we quarrelled about you !
’"
For a moment I did not know how to reply. Tlien I
asked her to explain her words.
’"No, no! no explanation!" answered a chorus of
voices.
"That’s a pity," I replied; "in my opinion we’ve
been playing ’
hide-and-seek ’
far too long."
The rest of the evening passed amid general constraint.
"Well, I don’t care! " I muttered on my way home,
searching" my conscience.
What was the meaning of all this ? Was it nothing
but the innocent whim of a fantastic mind ? Two women
quarrelling over a man ! They must be jealous, then.
Was the Baroness mad that she gave herself away in such
a manner? I did not think so. I felt sure there was
something else at the bottom of it.
"What is going on in this house? " I asked myself,
brooding over the strange scene which had startled me in
the evening, the very improbability of which made me
hesitate to believe that I had seen anything really Avrong.
This senseless jealousy, the apprehension of the old
mother, the love of the Baroness, stimulated by the spring
air, all this confused my mind, seethed and fermented in
my brain, and after spending a sleepless night, I decided
for a second time not to see her again, and so prevent the
threatening calamity.
With this intention I arose in the morning and wrote
her a sensible, candid and humble letter ; in carefully
chosen language I protested against an excessive abuse of
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