"Why, I am sure I don't know. Madame never tells
me her affairs."
I went back to the bedroom, seated myself on a long couch.
"All right, Madame Souchard. I am going to wait here. And let me tell you that something funny is going to happen! Ha! Ha! In the end, you see, Mother Souchard, this thing is bound to come to a head. I have been patient long enough. I have been. . . . Well, that's enough!"
I shook my fist in the air.
"And it is going to be very funny, Mother Souchard!. . . and you'll be able to brag about having taken part in something very funny, something you'll never forget, never! You'll dream about it at night with terror, so help me God!"
"Oh! Monsieur Mintié! Monsieur Mintié," the old woman implored. "For the love of God calm yourself. Go away! You'll commit a crime as sure as I live! And what is it you are going to do, Monsieur Mintié? What are you going to do?"
At this moment, Spy, having come out of his corner, was advancing toward me, shaking his back, dancing on his hind legs like those of a spider. And I looked at Spy persistently. I was thinking that Spy was the only creature that Juliette loved, that to kill Spy would be to inflict the greatest sorrow on Juliette! The dog raised its paws toward me and tried to get on my lap. He seemed to say:
"Even if you do suffer so much, I am not to blame for it. To avenge yourself on me so small, so feeble, so trustful, would be cowardly. And then you think she really loves me so much! I amuse her as a plaything, I serve as a distraction for her for a moment and that is all. If you kill me now she will get another little dog like me this very evening, one whom
