As became a woman with a head on her shoulders, she decided that Madame's conduct was rather too much of a good thing.

But she defended her, nonetheless: this union with the play actor couldn't last; the madness must be allowed to pass off! The two men retired without uttering a sound.

On the pavement outside they shook hands silently, as though swayed by a mutual sense of fraternity.

Then they turned their backs on one another and went crawling off in opposite directions.
When at last Muffat entered his town house in the Rue Miromesnil his wife was just arriving.

The two met on the great staircase, whose walls exhaled an icy chill.