married man cannot indulge his whims, he has
ceased to be his own master. Do you think that I
would throw good money away. Not I, with Elise
and our pretty AuranoP
Once a lover and lord of the sea he had been, then
the lover and lord of a mortal woman; but now he was
the slave of Aurano's blue eyes which were bluer far
than his own or her mother's, of Aurano's minute but
imperious hands that grabbed at his hair and his
gaily striped jersey, of Aurano's delightful chuckling
laugh that tumbled over itself with enjoyment. There
she was, an actual bit of his body, yet a creature whose
beauty he thought so amazing that whenever he
touched her soft white limbs he could scarcely believe
that his crude seed had made her, and must worship
this transfiguration of himself, for when all was said
and done Goundran was human.
But meanwhile people noted what Goundran was
saying, for had he not been a close friend of Jouse?
And so what with his speeches, and Mere Melanie's
ire which had led to the cutting of Jouse in public,
and Madame Roustan's unceasing wails, and Madame
Simon's pained criticisms, and Hermitte's terror
lest Jouse should join with the mayor in a plot to rob
him of money, it was not surprising that those who had
begun by feeling aggrieved were soon feeling resentful.
§2
This disaffection of their neighbours and friends
had begun to weigh heavily upon Marie. It was not
that people said much to her face, but rather the
things that she knew they were thinking, and she
dreaded her morning shopping, these days — dreaded
the carefully guarded words which veiled the rising
resentment against Jouse. For now among those
who had known him for years, one friend only
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