Perhaps the worthy school-master
knew his daughter; if so he was the only one. Never did so
consummate a hypocrisy minister to so profound a perversity, and a
depravity so inconceivable in a young and seemingly innocent girl.
If, at the bottom of her heart, she thought herself the most
wretched of women, there was nothing of it apparent--it was a
well-kept secret. She knew how to show to her husband, in place
of the love she did not feel, the appearance of a passion at once
burning and modest, betraying furtive glances and a flush as of
pleasure, when he entered the room.
All the world said:
"Bertha is foolishly fond of her husband."
Sauvresy was sure of it, and he was the first to say, not caring
to conceal his joy:
"My wife adores me."
Such were man and wife at Valfeuillu when Sauvresy found Tremorel
on the banks of the Seine with a pistol in his hand. Sauvresy
missed his dinner that evening for the first time since his marriage,
though he had promised to be prompt, and the meal was kept waiting
for him. Bertha might have been anxious about this delay; she was
only indignant at what she called inconsiderateness.
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