The baroness wished to burst like a storm of Charadras. "Wretch!" she said. "Would you dare say you did not know what you now reproach me with, and that it is not evident that your lust is not my lust? As if yourself had not entertained many a chipmunk-ballerina, and doubtless paid far more to them than ever I to M. de Brie, for it is not your looks or manners that could attract a woman!"
"I'm not saying I know, I'm not saying I don't know. All I'm saying is: observe my conduct during the years we have been married, and you will see that it has been consistent. You wanted to study song with the famous baritone who debuted so successfully at the Opéra elfique; I wished to study dance with that dancer who had made such an éclat with the Chippendale Dance Company of Forode. That cost us both 100, 000 mushroom-lions, but I said nothing of it, as harmony in the ménages, even if they be ménages à quatre, is necessary. Soon, you fall out with the servant of Eutrollopielle, the muse of harmony, and take up diplomacy with the assistant to the foreign minister. I let you continue your studies; what do they matter to me, so long as you pay for them from your account? But now I perceive that you draw upon mine, and that your apprenticeship has cost me one million mushroom-lions. Halte-là! That, madame, cannot continue, as Barbalbero said on hearing that Saroumand used the entwood of Fimbréthelle for tasteless elvish-modern furniture. Either your diplomat will give free... lessons, and I will tolerate him, or he will never again set foot in this house. Do you understand, madame?"
"Monsieur, you go beyond the limits of the ignoble!" cried Lobélie, suffocated.
