Why then had he not told her about the part?
"What part?" he said in his ill-humored tone. "The grand lady's part,
maybe? The deuce, you believe you've got talent then! Why, such a
part would utterly do for you, my girl! You're meant for comic
business--there's no denying it!"
She was dreadfully wounded. All that evening he kept chaffing her,
calling her Mlle Mars. But the harder he hit the more bravely she
suffered, for she derived a certain bitter satisfaction from this heroic
devotion of hers, which rendered her very great and very loving in her
own eyes. Ever since she had gone with other men in order to supply
his wants her love for him had increased, and the fatigues and disgusts
encountered outside only added to the flame. He was fast becoming a
sort of pet vice for which she paid, a necessity of existence it was
impossible to do without, seeing that blows only stimulated her desires.
He, on his part, seeing what a good tame thing she had become, ended by
abusing his privileges. She was getting on his nerves, and he began to
conceive so fierce a loathing for her that he forgot to keep count of
his real interests. When Bosc made his customary remarks to him he cried
out in exasperation, for which there was no apparent cause, that he
had had enough of her and of her good dinners and that he would shortly
chuck her out of doors if only for the sake of making another woman a
present of his seven thousand francs.
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