And when the mistress, so formidable toward everybody except her daughter, cried with rage: "That Micheline! I have just seen her again in the garden, hanging on the arm of that great lanky fellow, her eyes fixed on his like a lark fascinated by a looking-glass.

What on earth has happened to her that she should be in such a state ?" Marechal interrupted her gently.
"All fair people are like that," he affirmed with ironical gayety.

"You cannot understand it, Madame; you are dark." Then Madame Desvarennes became angry.
"Be quiet," she said, "you are stupid! She ought to have a shower-bath! She is mad!" As for Cayrol he lived in ecstasy, like an Italian kneeling before a madonna.

He had never been so happy; he was overwhelmed with joy.

Until then, he had only thought of business matters.