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278 THE CONFESSION OF A FOOL
insolent than usual. He approached Marie while we were
playing backgammon, and asked her to explain the rules
of the game to him. I answered as civilly as I could
under the circumstances, and the worthy man returned
to his seat, snubbed. Marie, more sensitive than I, was
under the impression that she ought to make amends for
my rudeness ; she turned to him with the first question
which came into her mind
—
"Do you play billiards? " she said.
"No, madame, or rather, I play badly. . .
."
He rose again, approached a step or two, and offered
me a cigar. I declined.
He turned to Marie. " Won’t you smoke, madame? "
Fortunately for her, for the tobacconist and the future of
my family, she too declined, but she refused in a manner
which flattered him.
How dared this man offer a lady a cigarette in a
restaurant in the presence of her husband ?
Was I a jealous fool ? Or was my wife’s conduct
so scandalous that she excited the desire of the first-
comer ?
We had a scene in our room, for I regarded her as
a somnambulist whom it was my duty to awaken. She
was walking straight to her doom, without being in the
least aware of it. I gave her an epitome of her sins, old
and new, and minutely criticised her conduct.
Silently, with a pale face and dream-shadowed eyes,
she listened until I had finished. Then she rose and went
down-stairs to bed. But this time—for the first time in
my life—I fell so low as to play the spy. I crept down-
stairs, found her bedroom door, and looked through the
keyhole.
The rich glow of the lamp fell on the children’s nurse,
who sat opposite the door, right in the field of my
vision. Marie was pacing the room excitedly, vehemently
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