Chapter VI

Abstract

‘What a deceitful creature!’ Alphonse said to his brother, as soon as they were alone. ‘How well she feigns religion, virtue, decency, and how well her face, with its air of sweetness, fools people all the more! But one can discern, in those seductive features, the mask of hypocrisy — I must have been blind not to recognize it straight away. Oh, how I would pity men, if all women resembled this one.’ ‘My friend,’ said Théodore, ‘I fear you were too hasty; I advised prudence, and you listened only to your passions. What are we going to do now? A dead man! A guilty woman!’