Lise, my daughter, was sitting before a book, and the old nurse, with my youngest child, was beside the table, turning the cover of something or other.
In the parlor I heard a slow arpeggio, and his voice, deadened, and a denial from her.

She said: 'No, no! There is something else!' And it seemed to me that some one was purposely deadening the words by the aid of the piano.
"My God! How my heart leaped! What were my imaginations! When I remember the beast that lived in me at that moment, I am seized with fright.

My heart was first compressed, then stopped, and then began to beat like a hammer.

The principal feeling, as in every bad feeling, was pity for myself.

'Before the children, before the old nurse,' thought I, 'she dishonors me.