Mr. Lantin was married at age 25, in Paris, in 1890. His parents had sent him there to study. His father was a teacher in a rural school, and his mother a seamstress. Now working for the ministry, he spent much of his time bent over his desk, writing, reading and working.
He had met Mrs. Lantin in a park on a summer day, during the maturity of nature, while the sun shone with all its power. Before he had met his wife, Mr.Lantin had thought this park was like all the others. But when he met Ms. Morillon there, she lit up his life, and made this simple park a special place for both .
Ms. Morillon was a poor girl of 20 years, of modest beauty, but an angelic and heavenly charm. Her mouth seemed so divine that Mr. Lantin imagined she only ate ambrosia, the gods’ divine food. Her eyes were so soft and tender that they could bend someone’s will in a single glance.
Their wedding took place in Paris , and their honeymoon took place two weeks later, in Monaco, in the south. Mr. Lantin introduced his wife to theater, which she fell in love with. She could not help but spend all her time watching plays. After their wedding, it was a marital bliss, during which the two lovers never ceased to repeat that they would love each other for all eternity.
But little by little, Mr.Lantin began to not go out with his wife to the theater every week, except for a grand event or occasion to make her happy. He was always sitting at his desk, back hunched. He almost began to forget their once so young and lively love. And his wife also noticed this, gradually. Mrs. Lantin was bored. So she asked her husband if she could go to the theater alone. But he, who adored her all the same, would not let her go alone, lest misfortune happen to her. He therefore only allowed her to go if she was accompanied by a friend.
But the dates with her friends did her wrong, for her friends told her “See here, the necklace that my husband bought me?” or “Just look at these darling earrings”. She quickly began to envy them and decided to get some for herself. She saved up her money, and managed to buy a beautiful, gold ring . When her husband asked her where all her jewelry came from, she simply replied ” They are fakes.” And he only nodded his head.