SUMMARIES
A RESPECTABLE WOMAN
Mrs. Baroda wasn't very pleased to learn her husband Gaston had invited his friend Gouvernail to spend a week or two on the plantation. Mrs. Baroda and her husband had entertained a good deal during the winter and now she wanted to rest instead of receiving guests.
She had heard much about Gouvernail but she had never seen him. He was a journalist but not a society man. She pictured him tall, slim cynical, with eyeglasses and his hands in his pockets and she didn't like this imagination. On the contrary, Gouvernail wasn't tall and cynical, didn't wear eyeglasses nor carry his hands in his pockets. She rather liked him when he first presented himself, but she couldn't explain why. In fact, he wasn't a brilliant man; he was mute and receptive and made no appeal to her approval or esteem.
Once settled at the plantation he liked sitting upon the wide portico, smoking cigars and listening attentively to Gaston's experiences as a sugar planter.
Gouvernail's personality puzzled Mrs. Baroda. He was a lovable and inoffensive fellow. After a few days, since she couldn't know him better, she gave over being puzzled and imposed her society upon him. As Gouvernail took no manner of exception to her action, he started to accompany him in his strolls.
One day Mrs. Baroda told her husband Gouvernail tired her frightfully. Gaston asked her why. Mrs. Baroda replied she should like him better if he gave her some trouble and were more like others, because she would had to plan somewhat for his comfort and enjoyment. Gaston suggested taking Gouvernail seriously and making a commotion over him, because they were the last things he would desire or expect. She got surprised, so Gaston explained he was run down by overwork and needed to rest. Finally, Mrs. Baroda said the following day she was going to the city to have her spring gowns fitted and told him to let her know when Gouvernail was gone. Meanwhile she would stay at her Aunt Octavie's.
That night she sat alone at the edge of a walk. She was very confused. At a certain point Gouvernail appeared, sat beside her without any suspicion and gave her a scarf on behalf of her husband. After that, he made a commonplace apostrophe to the night.
Gouvernail wasn't a diffident man and his silence was not constitutional but the result of his mood. In fact, sitting there beside Mrs. Baroda, he talked freely about his old college days with Gaston and his keen and blind ambitions.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Baroda had ceased to think. She wanted to touch him, draw close and whisper against his cheek. But she didn't do so, because she was a respectable woman. Therefore, as soon as she could do so without an appearance of rudeness, she left him there alone.
Mrs. Baroda was tempted to tell her husband what had happened that night but she didn't yield to the temptation. In the early morning, she took a train to the city and didn't return until Gouvernail was gone from her house. Gaston wanted to have him back during the summer but he yielded to his wife's oppositions.
However, before the year ended, she proposed from herself to have Gouvernail visit them again. Her husband was very surprised and delighted.

THE KISS
The room was full of deep shadows and Brantain sat in one of these. In the room there was a girl, Nathalie, who Brantain liked a lot. She sat next to a dim fireplace and stroked a cat which was curled in her lap.
She was very handsome, fine and composed. They were talking about things which didn't actually occupy their minds. Brantain was a frank, blustering fellow without guile enough to conceal his feelings and no desire to do so. She was confidently waiting for him to declare himself and meant to accept him, although she didn't actually love him. In fact, Brantain was enormously rich and she only liked his wealth.
At a certain point a man, who Brantain knew, entered the room. He didn't realize there was another man in the room and so kissed the girl.
Brantain slowly arose; the girl arose too, but the newcomer stood between them. The desperate Brantain left the room. The girl extended her hand to him but couldn't have trust herself to speak.
Nathalie reproached the man, who was called Harvy. He asked her forgiveness and told her he had come into the house with her brother through the side way. He added also that the misadventure was unavoidable.
After that, Nathalie approached Brantain and invited him with a delicious frankness of manners to talk with her. He seemed extremely unhappy but a ray of hope mingled with misery in his expression.
She begged him forgiveness and told him the man who had kissed her was an intimate friend of hers and an associate of her brother. Her family wanted even to give him the same privileges as the family. She was almost weeping and told Brantain she considered his opinion about her a lot.
While she was talking, Brantain's misery was gradually disappearing. After Nathalie's speech, his face was radiant. Therefore they decided to marry.
Harvy was among the guests at the wedding and sought her out in a rare moment when she stood alone. He told her that her husband had sent him over to kiss her. In fact Brantain didn't want to interrupt the pleasant intimacy between Nathalie and Harvy.
She was very pleased and felt like a chess player who, by the clever handling of his pieces, realizes the game had taken the course intended. She looked at him tenderly and wanted to kiss him, but Harvy said quietly he had stopped kissing women because it's dangerous.
In the end, Nathalie had Brantain and his million left. But a person can't have everything in this world.