Petty Troubles of Married Life, part 1, page 59 by Honoré de Balzac
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s and its hacks! I'll take the woods and their shady groves! Yes, Adolphe, I am really satisfied, so let's say no more about it."
Adolphe listens to sarcasm for an hour by the clock.
"Have you done, dear?" he asks, profiting by an instant in which she tosses her head after a pointed interrogation.
Then Caroline concludes thus: "I've had enough of the villa, and I'll never set foot in it again. But I know what will happen: you'll keep it, probably, and leave me in Paris. Well, at Paris, I can at least amuse myself, while you go with Madame de Fischtaminel to the woods. What is a /Villa Adolphini/ where you get nauseated if you go six times round the lawn? where they've planted chair-legs and broom- sticks on the pretext of producing shade? It's like a furnace: the walls are six inches thick! and my gentleman is absent seven hours a day! That's what a country seat means!"
"Listen to me, Caroline."
"I wouldn't so much mind, if you would only confess what you did to-day. You don't know me yet: come, tell me, I won't scold you. I pardon you beforehand for all that you've done."
Adolphe, who knows the consequences of a confession too well to make one to his wife, replies--"Well, I'll tell you."
"That's a good fellow--I shall love you better."
"I was three hours--"
"I was sure of it--at Madame de Fischtaminel's!"
"No, at our notary's, as he had got me a purchaser; but we could not come to terms: he wanted our villa furnished. When I left there, I went to Braschon's, to see how much we owed him--"
"You made up this romance while I was talking to you! Look me in the face! I'll go to see Braschon to-morrow."
Adolphe cannot restrain a nervous shudder.
"You can't help laughing, you monster!"
"I laugh at your obstinacy."
"I'll go to-morrow to Madame de Fischtaminel's."
"Oh, go wherever you like!"
"What brutality!" says Caroline, rising and going away with her handkerchief at her eyes.
The country house