XIII

For some time past Monsieur Gourd had gone prowling about, looking mysteriously ill at ease. One met him moving noiselessly along, his eyes peeled and his ears pricked up, forever going up and down both staircases, where the tenants had even seen him doing...

XII

One morning, when Berthe was at her mother’s, Adèle came in looking very scared, to say that Monsieur Saturnin was there, with a man. Doctor Chassagne, the director of the Moulineaux Asylum, had told the Josserands on a number of occasions that he could...

VIII

The civil marriage had taken place on the Thursday. On the Saturday morning, as early as a quarter-past ten, some of the lady guests were already waiting in the Josserands’ drawing-room, the religious ceremony having been fixed for half-past eleven at Saint-Roch. Madame Juzeur...

XVII

Months passed, and spring came. In the house in the Rue de Choiseul everybody was talking of the likelihood of a marriage between Octave and Madame Hédouin. Things, however, had not yet reached that stage. Octave had resumed his old post at the Ladies’ Paradise,...

XVI

On the Wednesday morning, when Marie took Berthe to see Madame Josserand, the latter, outraged at a scandal which touched her pride, turned very pale and said not a word. She took her daughter’s hand as brutally as if she were a schoolmistress dragging...

VII

In order to get uncle Bachelard to give Berthe a dowry, for the past two weeks the Josserands had been asking him to dinner almost every evening, in spite of his revolting habits. When they told him about the marriage all he did was pat...

VI

The next day, which was a Sunday, Octave lay for an extra hour in the warm sheets of his bed. He had awoken in the mood of lazy good-humour that accompanies the mental clearness that morning brings. Why should he be in any hurry?...

IX

Two days later, at about seven o’clock, as Octave arrived at the Campardons’ for dinner, he found Rose by herself, dressed in a cream-coloured silk dressing-gown trimmed with white lace. ‘Are you expecting someone?’ he asked. ‘Oh, no!’ she replied, somewhat embarrassed. ‘We’ll have dinner...

IV

The next day Octave began to focus his attention on Valérie. He studied her habits, and worked out the times when he was likely to meet her on the stairs, managing to go up frequently to his room, either when lunching at the Campardons’...

III

As soon as the fish had been served (some dubiously fresh skate in black butter, which the clumsy Adèle had swamped in vinegar), Hortense and Berthe, seated on either side of uncle Bachelard, kept urging him to drink, filling his glass in turns and...