"
At last Noel could stand it no longer, to the great delight of Madame
Chaffour.
"Enough of these recriminations!" cried he, rising. "If I hide our
relations, it is because I am constrained to do so. Of what do you
complain? You have unrestrained liberty; and you use it, too, and
so largely that your actions altogether escape me. You accuse me of
creating a vacuum around you. Who is to blame? Did I grow tired of a
happy and quiet existence? My friends would have come to see us in a
home in accordance with a modest competence. Can I bring them here? On
seeing all this luxury, this insolent display of my folly, they would
ask each other where I obtained all the money I have spent on you. I
may have a mistress, but I have not the right to squander a fortune that
does not belong to me. If my acquaintances learnt to-morrow that it is I
who keep you, my future prospects would be destroyed. What client would
confide his interests to the imbecile who ruined himself for the woman
who has been the talk of all Paris? I am not a great lord, I have
neither an historical name to tarnish, nor an immense fortune to lose. I
am plain Noel Gerdy, a advocate.
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