Thanks to Chesnel's taste for delicate fare, Brigitte was
found prepared to set an excellent meal before the Duchess.
Chesnel and his charming companion set out for M. and Mme. Camusot's
house.
"Ah! so there is a Mme. Camusot?" said the Duchess. "Then the affair
may be managed."
"And so much the more readily, because the lady is visibly tired
enough of living among us provincials; she comes from Paris," said
Chesnel.
"Then we must have no secrets from her?"
"You will judge how much to tell or to conceal," Chesnel replied
humbly. "I am sure that she will be greatly flattered to be the
Duchesse de Maufrigneuse's hostess; you will be obliged to stay in her
house until nightfall, I expect, unless you find it inconvenient to
remain."
"Is this Mme. Camusot a good-looking woman?" asked the Duchess, with a
coxcomb's air.
"She is a bit of a queen in her own house."
"Then she is sure to meddle in court-house affairs," returned the
Duchess. "Nowhere but in France, my dear M. Chesnel, do you see women
so much wedded to their husbands that they are wedded to their
husband's professions, work, or business as well. In Italy, England,
and Germany, women make it a point of honor to leave men to fight
their own battles; they shut their eyes to their husbands' work as
perseveringly as our French citizens' wives do all that in them lies
to understand the position of their joint-stock partnership; is not
that what you call it in your legal language? Frenchwomen are so
incredibly jealous in the conduct of their married life, that they
insist on knowing everything; and that is how, in the least
difficulty, you feel the wife's hand in the business; the Frenchwoman
advises, guides, and warns her husband.
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