I am not jealous; yet, every time I reach home after a ball, I experience a certain feeling of relief and satisfaction: I cannot help it.

When you have seen your wife whirled round a room, in the arms of a score of men, who have plunged their eyes in her corsage, inhaled the perfume of her hair, held her waist and hand, felt her near them at the distance of a hair’s breadth, you are happy to find yourself once more alone with her, and to feel that, after all, she is your very own. Besides, there is another sentiment that animates you. The dance has made your little wife radiant; it has brought a new glow to her cheeks; her eyes are brighter; her whole being seems to exhale I know not what intoxicating perfume; she is lovelier than ever in your eyes; and those thousand little jealous ideas that have been passing through your head have added fuel to the flame of your love ... in short, I know nothing more pleasant, more delightful, than to return from a ball with one’s wife, to a cosy fire-side, to thrust her little feet into her satin slippers, to pull off her gloves, and ask her for a cup of tea.

We had had a little room arranged quite expressly for these tÊte-À-tÊte. We called it the reposoir. We only used it on returning from the play or a ball. What long confabulations we have had in it! What delicious little chats its walls have heard! And, thank Heaven, they often hear them still: I do not see why I should not put all my verbs in the present tense.

This sanctum is about the size of a nutshell: there is just room for two. The furniture consists of a table, a sofa, two inviting-looking arm-chairs, and a Pleyel piano of the sweetest tone. A Turkey carpet covers the floor, and two lamps with blue tulip-shaped globes throw a soft, most exquisite light over the room. When the curtains are drawn, we can imagine ourselves alone in the world.

My wife has more than once confessed to me that, to her, the greatest pleasure about going to a ball or a theatre, was the thought of the little reposoir all ready to receive us on our return, and she never forgot to give strict orders with regard to it before setting out.

I have more than once, at a party, caught her throwing me little glances that seemed to say: “Have patience, darling; Parker is just lighting us a lovely little fire; in a few moments we shall be all alone, and I will soon drive that frown from your brow.”

One evening we came home and went to the reposoir as usual, my wife radiant and lovely enough to turn the head of a hermit, I a little sulky. I took off her pelisse, laid it carefully on the sofa, and threw myself dreamily into one of the chairs. My wife took possession of the other, gave me a wicked little glance, and unceremoniously burst out laughing in my face.

“I am sure you are jealous. Don’t tell me you are not,” she added, placing five glowing perfumed fingers on my lips.

——“Well, yes, I am; it was not nice of you to waltz with that great fop of a....”

——“Now don’t talk about that; I was punished enough for it. I never saw such an awkward fellow.”

——“It served you right.” ——“Come, don’t scold me. I had it in my head—I don’t know why—that it was to be a polka. You know very well that I don’t care to waltz with anybody but you. First of all, because you waltz beautifully, and then, with you there is no danger.”

——“There is no danger? What do you mean?”

——“Did I say that?”

——“You did.”

——“Oh! I don’t know what I say. Yes, as I was remarking, you waltz beautifully ... only....”

——“Only....”

——“Only you go too fast.”

——“Too fast! How can that be? The waltz should be rapid, giddy.”

——“Oh! you silly! Ahem! I mean to say, you are wrong.”

——“Explain yourself, sweet one.”

——“Well then, I mean that I like a waltz to be slow, dreamy, sad, almost dying away; I should like them composed entirely of the kind of airs they generally begin with—slow and solemn.”

——“What!” I exclaimed, “you don’t like the intoxicating kind of waltz?”

——“You know nothing about it,” replied she cunningly.

——“I tell you I am an inveterate waltzer.” ——“That proves nothing at all.”

——“I tell you a waltz should be an intoxicating whirl.”

——“Just at the end, perhaps; though I am not so sure of that either. Listen, I’ll show you the kind of movement I like.”

And, seating herself at the piano, my wife began to play a few bars of the Colonel waltz.

“That is a waltz,” she said, seating herself on my knees, and laying her head upon my shoulder.

——“Indeed!” I replied, growing reflective. “I say, darling, if you don’t mind—I don’t know why I ask you that again, but more than ever ... I had rather you waltzed with no one but me.”

——“Oh! you need not ask me; and if that poor fellow had not set about it so awkwardly, I should very soon have thanked him and excused myself.... Just time enough to perceive that it was a waltz: and that would have settled it, you may be sure.”

——“I don’t follow you at all.”

——“It is so lovely to waltz with you! You are not afraid to hold me firmly, and besides ... when I get giddy, I just lay my head on your shoulder and close my eyes, and then I feel quite safe.”

——“It’s a curious thing. The waltz makes me a little giddy too, but still I....” ——“Well, you are not like me.”

——“Does it make your head swim?”

——“What a dear old goosey you are!”

——“Not such a goose as I look.... Once more, what on earth is the effect that the waltz does produce upon you?”

——“I ... do not know.”

——“Try to find out.”

And as I foresaw that my wife was about to make me a little confidence, and my wife’s confidences have always deeply interested me, I turned down the lamps, made her turn her back to the light, and applied an attentive ear to her pretty mouth.

“Now, come,” I said to her; “do tell me.”

——“I am sure, I don’t know.”

——“Oh yes, you do.”

——“It’s only nonsense....”

——“All the more reason why you should say it out. Go on, my own darling: there is nothing so dangerous as nonsense turned inwards.”

——“Little shivers ... ever so small ... you know.... Don’t kiss me in the neck: you’ll make me shriek....”

——“Little frissons!... Where?”

——“All over....”

——“Humph! I begin to understand the danger you were speaking of just now.... Now, darling, explain yourself more clearly, you know; I have not got it yet.”

——“I adore you!” she said rising, and, taking my head in her two hands, she kissed me tenderly.

We took a delicious cup of tea together, and it was agreed that in future my wife should only waltz with me.

It would appear that, when I waltz, I do not set about it too awkwardly. At any rate, it is the conclusion that I drew from our resolution.