Short summary - A Meeting - Guy de Maupassant

French literature summaries - 2021

Short summary - A Meeting
Guy de Maupassant

At a reception at the Princess de Rennes, the baron accidentally saw kissing in the bedroom - his wife and the Marquis de Servigne. As soon as the baron and his wife were alone, the baron said that he saw her in the princess's room. He offered to disperse quietly, leave his house, but continue to bear his name and avoid scandals in order to avoid harsh measures.

The Baron loved her very much in the early days of their marriage. Little by little his ardor cooled. Now he had easy connections with actresses and society ladies, but he retained some attraction to his wife.

She was very young, barely twenty-four years old - a small, blond, thin woman, refined, spoiled, graceful, charming.

A few days later, it became known in Paris that the baron and the baroness had peacefully separated due to the dissimilarity of their characters.

The Baron traveled a lot, was engaged in the restoration of his castle, finally got tired of all these pleasures and returned to his Parisian mansion exactly six years after the breakup.

Now he is forty-five years old, he has a lot of gray hair, a small belly and that special melancholy characteristic of aging people.

A month after returning to Paris, he caught a cold, began to cough, and the doctor ordered him to spend the end of the winter in Nice. In the morning in the train compartment, he discovered that his neighbor was his wife, unusually changed for the better, self-confident, aware of her beauty and freshness. The Baron bowed to her, asked if she needed anything and how she had spent those six years. She replied that she was keeping up appearances by following his wishes.

The Baron invited her to return to him, he is her husband, and the law is on his side. She replied that she was very sorry, but she was not free. She added that this date was prepared in advance, she took some precautions, following his advice. On the platform of the station, they will see Princess de Rennes and Countess Anrio, who are waiting for her with their husbands. These ladies will not miss the opportunity to say that we spent the night alone in this compartment. She arranged this meeting so as not to violate decency. Besides, she felt that she was pregnant ...

He never saw her again.