Wherefore believe that she would enjoy down there with Forcheville or with
other men intoxicating pleasures which she had never known with him, and
which his jealousy alone had fabricated in all their elements? At
Bayreuth, as in Paris, if it should happen that Forcheville thought of him
at all, it would only be as of some one who counted for a great deal in
the life of Odette, some one for whom he was obliged to make way, when
they met in her house. If Forcheville and she scored a triumph by being
down there together in spite of him, it was he who had engineered that
triumph by striving in vain to prevent her from going there, whereas if he
had approved of her plan, which for that matter was quite defensible, she
would have had the appearance of being there by his counsel, she would
have felt herself sent there, housed there by him, and for the pleasure
which she derived from entertaining those people who had so often
entertained her, it was to him that she would have had to acknowledge her
indebtedness.
And if--instead of letting her go off thus, at cross-purposes with him,
without having seen him again--he were to send her this money, if he were
to encourage her to take this journey, and to go out of his way to make it
comfortable and pleasant for her, she would come running to him, happy,
grateful, and he would have the joy--the sight of her face--which he had
not known for nearly a week, a joy which none other could replace.
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