Part 3

"You told me, monsieur, that it would take me till two o'clock at least. But I hurried and got back earlier. Monsieur tells me sometimes that I am slow, and I wanted to prove that I could be quick."

"You have proved that you are a prying rascal--that's what you have proved! Another time, if you don't carry out my orders to the letter, I will discharge you."

"You didn't give me any letter, monsieur."

"Enough; off with you, or I may give you something else!"

The next day, at half-past five, I was at the place Mademoiselle Rosette had appointed; in a few moments, I saw my new conquest approaching; she did not keep me waiting, that was another excellent quality.

For this occasion Mademoiselle Rosette had made a toilet; she wore a green merino dress, a pretty shawl, a black velvet bonnet, with a tulle veil. It was all very becoming to her; moreover, her costume was suitable, without being pretentious; that fact denoted good taste.

I offered her my arm, and she smilingly accepted it. We walked toward the cab stand. I put her into a little _citadine_, and as we drove away I began the conversation with a kiss; that leads at once to intimacy. My companion accepted the situation with the best grace imaginable. We were very good friends in short order.

"Where are you taking me?" inquired Rosette.

"To a restaurant."

"Is it very far?"

"Near the Jardin des Plantes, opposite the Orléans station--the Arc-en-Ciel. It seems to me that if we get away from the crowd, we shall be more at liberty, more at home. You're in no hurry, are you?"

"Oh, no! that is to say, provided I'm at home at eleven o'clock."

"Then we have plenty of time before us. By the way, where do you live?"

"Suppose I don't choose to tell you?"

"It shall be exactly as you choose."

"I was joking. I live on Faubourg Saint-Denis, corner of Rue Chabrol."

"The deuce! that's well up in the faubourg! And you go back there alone, at night, when you leave your work?"

"To be sure!"

"And you're not afraid?"

"What should I be afraid of? Besides, I always have body-guards, men who follow me and protect me. But, speaking of that, monsieur, who was that lady who came to see you while we were polking? and who stayed there after I went, and looked at me as if she meant to count my eyelashes?"

"That lady is a friend of mine."

"I understand: she's your mistress!"

"I assure you that she is not. If she were, I should have no reason to conceal the fact."

"Oh! I don't know. There are some ladies who don't want to be given away--when they're married, for instance."

"Once more, I assure you that she is a friend, and nothing more."

"Oh! a friend! I know what that means! So she's an old one, eh?"

"Neither old nor new. Do you suppose that, if that lady were my mistress, she would be obliging enough, when she found me dancing with you, to sit down at the piano and be our orchestra?"

"Oh! but she played the polka fast enough to spoil our wind in a second. It was no use for me to call out: 'A little slower, please, madame!' she didn't listen to me, but banged and banged away! It was a sly trick to wind us both. Oh! I'm not so stupid as you think!"

"But I have never thought that you were stupid; far from it!"

"Really! tell me, do you think I am bright?"

"I think you are charming."

"That's no answer; I might be charming, and still be stupid. However, I don't care; as long as I please you, and you love me a little--I mean much; I want to be loved much--that's all I ask."

She said all this with an abandon, a vivacity, which proved, at all events, that she did not stop to pick her words.

We arrived at the restaurant; I need not say that I had taken my conquest to an establishment where there were cosily furnished private dining-rooms. I also think it needless to add that I began by dismissing the waiter, who attempted to insist upon serving us at once, by telling him that I would prepare my order and ring for him when we wanted to dine. I was very glad to have an interview with Mademoiselle Rosette, uninterrupted by the constant going and coming of a waiter.

At last we were left alone. I was able to converse at my ease with my pretty workgirl, to whom our conversation was equally agreeable and who sustained her part excellently. I was enchanted with Mademoiselle Rosette! Long live the women who do not make a thousand and one grimaces before coming to what they have never intended to refuse! Ah! if only one could believe that they did have that intention, and yielded to the power of sentiment, to the ascendency of our passion alone! But it is impossible to believe that. Whenever a woman agrees to go to a private dining-room with a man, it means that she does not propose to be severe.

In due course, we dined; we had the most voracious appetites. We were as gay as larks; embarrassment and reserve had vanished. There is nothing superior to a little tender conversation for putting us in a good humor at once, and putting to flight that indefinable constraint which takes wing only when a woman has ceased to keep us at any distance.

Rosette and I were like people who had known each other for six months. She ate like an ogre and drank like a porter. She was a model grisette! a table companion of the sort that puts you on your mettle and excites you! Don't talk to me of the women who never have any appetite, who barely nibble at their food, and leave untouched all that you put on their plate. They call everything bad, and end by preventing you from eating. What depressing companions! With them, you spend quite as much--yes, more; for you never know what to order to stir them up, and you always dine wretchedly.

But with Rosette how different it was! how we made the oysters disappear, and the soup, and the beef-steak; the fish and game and vegetables and sweetmeats and dessert! She ate the last dish with as much gusto as the first. Oh! fascinating girl, I admired thee! I revered thee! I would have erected a column to thee, had I been Lucullus! But thou wert as well pleased with a charlotte russe! And thou wert right: columns remain, but charlotte russes pass away; and that was what we wanted.

We drank chablis, pomard, madeira, and came at last to champagne. Rosette confessed that she adored that wine; as for the others, I was pleased to see that she had a friendly feeling for them as well. She laughingly emptied her glass, saying:

"I'd have you know that I never get tipsy."

A moment later, she cried:

"Oh! but I say, I am drinking too much; I'm beginning to be dizzy!"

In another instant, she assumed a sentimental expression.

"O my friend!" she said; "if I should be drunk, what would you say to me? You might not love me any more! That would make me very unhappy!"

But I kissed her and drank with her, and her fears were succeeded by bursts of merriment.

The more one drinks, the more one talks, unless one happens to be melancholy in one's cups, and my grisette was not so constituted.

While we dined, she told me her whole history; I knew her family as well as if I were her cousin. She was an orphan, but her seven aunts took care of her. It seemed to me that their watchfulness resembled that of the Seven Sleepers. That is one of the inconveniences of having too many aunts: each of them probably relied on the others to keep an eye on Rosette.

Now her aunts wanted her to marry, and each one had a match in view for her; the result being that there were seven aspirants for the hand of my friend, who reminded me of the Seven Children of Lara. Thus Mademoiselle Rosette had only too many to choose from, to say nothing of the fact that she had several young men who were paying court to her, for the good motive, without the knowledge of her aunts.

"Perhaps you don't believe me! But I'll show you; I always have letters from some of my suitors in my pocket. I want you to read them; they'll make you laugh."

And Rosette set about emptying her pockets, which led us to the disclosure of a multitude of things, such as scissors, skeins of cotton, crusts of bread, visiting cards, copper coins, barley sugar, ribbons, braid, chalk, specimens of dry goods, orange peel, etc., etc. I told her that she should empty her pockets on the boulevard and shout:

"Here's what's left from the sale! Come, messieurs and mesdames, take your choice; this is what's left from the sale!"

Rosette insisted that I should read her letters from her adorers. I found in them the following sentiments:

"Ah! mademoiselle, what a sudden spasm I felt throughout my being when I saw your shadow on the curtain!"

Or this: "Fatality collects and heaps up like a block of granite on my breast the circumstances that compel me to idolize you."

I soon had enough of that; I refused to read any more and returned the scrawls to Rosette, saying:

"I'll wager that your lovers have long, flying hair, uncombed beards, and artist's hats?"

"That is true! How did you guess that?"

"My dear love, when a man writes in that style, he doesn't dress like other people."

The hour arrived when we must think of returning. The time had passed very quickly; that is the greatest praise one can give a tête-à-tête.

I put Mademoiselle Rosette in a cab again--she was slightly exhilarated--and said:

"I will escort you to Faubourg Saint-Denis."

She seemed to consider.

"Aren't you going home?" I continued.

"How stupid you are! Where do you suppose I'm going? But, you see, I have quite a choice; I can go and sleep at another one of my aunts', if I choose--it doesn't matter which, I have a bed with each of them; I might sleep in the Marais, for I have an aunt on Rue Pont-aux-Choux."

"Pardieu! that's convenient, isn't it? So, when you want to pass the night with your lover, you tell one aunt that you've been with another one, and so on. Oh! fortunate niece! I have known lots of nieces, but very few in so pleasant a position as you occupy."

"Oh! come, don't laugh at me! Let me tell you, monsieur, that my aunts see each other very often; and so, if I should lie and say I had passed the night with one of them when I hadn't, they'd soon find it out, and I shouldn't have a very nice time."

"Forgive me, dear love! I didn't mean to offend you!"

"Kiss me. When shall I see you again?"

"When you are willing."

"I'll come to see you Thursday, about two. Will you wait for me?"

"Most certainly."

"And you'll take care that your friend don't come and disturb us; if she does, I'll make a scene with her. I'm very jealous, let me tell you. You love me, don't you? Ah! you've made me tipsy, you see, and I don't know what I'm saying."

I reassured Rosette and left her on Faubourg Saint-Denis, where she had finally decided to go. She was a very attractive girl, her conversation was amusing, and her person most alluring. But I was sorry that she had a tent pitched in every quarter of Paris; one could never be sure where she had gone into camp.

XXXVI

A SCENE

I had known Rosette a month, and thus far had had no reason to repent. I had observed, to be sure, that the young woman did not always tell me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; but, after all, a lover should not act toward his mistress in the capacity of a juryman. Moreover, Rosette herself had told me, in a moment of effusiveness, that she lied a great deal and lied very well. It seemed to me that, after that, I was not justified in losing my temper when she told me a falsehood; for she might reply:

"I gave you fair warning!"

I often took Rosette to dine in a private dining-room. Knowing as I did what justice she could do to a hearty meal, it would really have been a pity not to give her an opportunity for practice; and as I myself am endowed with a lusty appetite, our little parties always afforded us pleasure: when love went to sleep, the stomach woke, and _vice versa_.

Rosette came to my rooms once or twice a week, and sometimes unheralded. When I was absent, she went into my chamber; I had told Pomponne that she was to be admitted at any time. When she had come and failed to find me, I always discovered it instantly, for she turned everything in the apartment topsy-turvy. She tossed about papers, books, combs, brushes, and soap; looked through all the drawers, and left nothing in its place; even the chairs I always found in the middle of the room.

"Couldn't you have put my room to rights a little?" I would say to Pomponne.

And Monsieur Pomponne would reply, with his sly smile:

"It was Mademoiselle Rosette who arranged monsieur's bedroom like that; I shouldn't venture to touch anything."

I had not seen Frédérique since the day she played for us to dance. She had not called upon me again. I had been several times to see her, but had not found her. Could it be that her friendship was really jealous of my love for a grisette? That would be absurd. Friendship should be indulgent to our weaknesses, and, after all, I had not promised Frédérique to be virtuous.

I could not understand her conduct in the least, but I was deeply grieved by it. I missed her; my follies with Rosette were simply transitory gleams of pleasure, while my delightful interviews with Frédérique filled my heart with a joy which had a morrow.

I was sitting one day, absorbed in serious reflections, when Frédérique entered my room. I cannot describe my sensation of pleasure. I ran to meet her, took her hands, and cried:

"Ah! here you are at last! I am very glad! I thought that you had forgotten me altogether."

She looked at me and smiled, as she rejoined:

"So you are glad to see me?"

"Unkind Frédérique! can you ask such a question? Why, I have been to see you several times!"

"I know it; my people told me."

"But you are never at home! What sort of life are you leading, pray, madame?"

"I go out a good deal, it is true."

"Have you been ill? it seems to me that you are a little pale."

"I am never very red. The women you see are so fresh and rosy, that you are struck by the difference."

"Ah! madame, I see no woman whom it gives me so much pleasure to look at as you."

"Really?"

She uttered that word with an accent that came from her heart. I made her sit down beside me. She looked all about the room, murmuring:

"Are you alone?"

"To be sure!"

"And I do not intrude?"

"Once more, I tell you that you never intrude."

"Oh! _never_ is too strong. What if she were with you?"

"Who, pray?"

"Mon Dieu! you know well enough: your dancing damsel--your Rosette."

"Oh! my Rosette!"

"_Dame!_ I think that I may fairly say _your_ Rosette, for she must surely have become yours since the day---- To be sure, she may be others' also, and in that case the possessive pronoun would be of doubtful propriety."

"Call her what you will, Frédérique; I attach little importance to that. But I am surprised to find that my liaison with that girl displeases you. Why is it so? I can't understand. You are too intelligent to believe that such amourettes can impair the pure friendship I have sworn to you."

Frédérique put her hand over her eyes and turned her face away.

"But you are mistaken!" she exclaimed. "It is not true! Your liaison with this grisette doesn't displease me at all. Upon my word! why should it, pray?--But I would have liked you to know five or six at the same time; that would be more amusing; I should enjoy that immensely."

At that moment I heard voices outside, and recognized Pomponne's.

"Monsieur is having a consultation with someone," he said.

"I don't care a hang for his consultation; I can go in any time, I can!" was the reply.

And an instant later, Mademoiselle Rosette opened the door and appeared before us. Frédérique turned pale, but she did not stir. I was annoyed that Rosette should have come just then. However, I had no reason for letting her see it; so I went to meet her, smiling as usual. But my grisette had assumed a furious expression, and she drew back from me, crying:

"Don't put yourself out, monsieur, I beg; you were so comfortable with madame! You weren't polking, to be sure, but you were engaged in something more interesting; anybody could see that."

I saw that Rosette was on the point of saying things most unseemly, and perhaps worse than that, to Madame Dauberny, and I felt my blood begin to boil. Frédérique, on the contrary, remained quite calm.

"Mademoiselle," I said, "I cannot believe that it is your intention to insult those persons whom you may chance to meet on my premises; I tell you at once that that does not meet my views at all, and that I will not endure it."

"Really? Perhaps I'll have to put on mittens when I speak to the princesses I find in monsieur's room! I guess not much! Humbug!"

"O Rosette! Rosette!"

"Let me alone; I propose to shriek all I want to, and get mad too! I don't believe in these _friendships_ between ladies and young men. Bah! friendship that crawls under your bedclothes!"

"Be careful, mademoiselle!"

"I won't be careful! I'm your mistress, I am, worse luck!--If madame don't know it, I'm very glad to tell her of it, so that she'll know it now. Yes, I'm your mistress; but I don't propose to have you have others at the same time--old ones or new ones;--if you do, I'll raise a deuce of a row! Ah! you'll see!"

Frédérique, who seemed rather pleased than angry as she listened to Rosette, rose and said to her in a most affable tone:

"I was quite well aware that you were monsieur's mistress, mademoiselle; I beg you to believe that I did not doubt it for a moment, when I saw you in his room. I assure you that you are wrong, altogether wrong, to be jealous of me, who am not and never have been Monsieur Rochebrune's mistress. So that I do not deserve your anger--and to prove it, I am going to take my leave at once and surrender my place to you--which I would not do, I beg you to believe, if monsieur were my lover. Come! make your peace; be reconciled! I am distressed to have been the cause of this scene.--Adieu, Rochebrune; au revoir, my friend! Be sure that I am not at all offended with you for what has happened."

Frédérique left the room, smiling sweetly at me. I did not try to detain her, because I did not choose to expose her to fresh abuse from Rosette.

As for my grisette, she threw herself on the divan, crying:

"I don't care! I must admit that she's a good creature, after all. Ah! I wouldn't have been the one to go! You might have called up a dozen gendarmes, and I'd just have said: _Zut!_"

I paced the floor without a word; I was vexed and angry. After five minutes, Rosette exclaimed:

"I say, monsieur, when are you going to stop stalking around your room, like the Bear of Berne? Why, you ought to have begged my pardon ten times for the tricks you play on me! For it's a perfect outrage, the way you treat me!"

"If anyone ought to ask pardon, mademoiselle, you are the one; for, without any motive or reason, you have insulted a most estimable lady, a person who should be out of reach of your suspicions and your attacks. I had told you before that there was nothing in my relations with her to arouse your jealousy; and because you find her in my room, where she has not been since the day of the polka, you make a scene, and say things to her that are worse than unbecoming. It is all wrong, and I am very angry with you."

"Hoity-toity! You're angry with me, are you? Ah! you're a nice man, you are! You are annoyed because I caught you in--vicious conversation, as the bewigged men say! After all, what did I say that was so mortifying to your fine lady? Nothing at all! Ah! if I had pulled her hair out or torn her dress, then you might say something!"

"That would have been the last straw! Do you suppose I would have allowed that?"

"If I'd taken a fancy to do it, you wouldn't have had time to stop me--my good friend. I wouldn't have asked your leave."

"Mademoiselle Rosette, you are very wrong-headed."

"That may be; but you can take me or leave me."

I said nothing, but continued to pace the floor. After a considerable time, Mademoiselle Rosette sprang to her feet.

"Well! so that's the way it is, eh?--Bonsoir!"

She rushed from the room, and I heard her slam one door after another till she was in the hall.

She had gone, and gone in a rage. No matter! I could not allow her to insult my visitors without the slightest cause. If I should allow it, with her temperament Mademoiselle Rosette would soon pass from words to deeds. I said to myself that she would calm down and come back to me. I did not believe that she was vixenish at heart. Those people who fly into a rage so quickly do not let the sun go down on their wrath.

XXXVII

ROSETTE'S SEVEN AUNTS

Several days passed and I heard nothing of my grisette. But I went to see Frédérique, whom I found at home, and who greeted me with evident pleasure.

I did not mention Rosette; but I saw in her eyes that she was burning to know the situation of my amour with her. At last, she could contain herself no longer.

"Well, my friend," she said, "you say nothing of your love affairs. I trust, however, that I am still your confidante; and you surely must have been content with my conduct the last time I came to see you."

"I did not speak of that, to avoid recalling unpleasant things; you were most kind, a thousand times too kind; but that did not surprise me, and I ask your pardon again for that girl, who didn't know what she was saying."

"I assure you that she didn't offend me in the least; far from it! her observations were so amusing, and her expressions so classic! But you are reconciled, I hope? My departure should have restored peace at once."

"No; that is where you are mistaken. We did not make peace. Rosette went away in a rage, and I haven't seen her since."

"Really? You surprise me. And haven't you made any attempt to see that fascinating grisette again?"

"No, not any."

Frédérique looked at me out of the corner of her eye. To change the subject, I asked her if her husband had returned.

"Not yet. You seem greatly interested in my husband's movements. I confess that that puzzles me a good deal."

"I beg you to believe that my interest in him has no connection with you."

"Oh! I am sure of that."

"Do you know that your husband's friend, he who called himself Saint-Germain, has lost his place?"

"I did not know it; but that explains why he comes here almost every day to inquire if Monsieur Dauberny has returned; indeed, he asked to see me once."

"Do not receive that man, madame; I take the liberty of giving you that advice."

"I will follow your advice, monsieur, which, by the by, is in perfect accord with my previous intentions. If I dared to give you advice, in my turn, I would say----"

"Well?"

"Oh, no! no! I won't say it! I prefer that you should follow the impulses of your heart; and then, too----"

Frédérique began to laugh, and I was somewhat annoyed; but she refused to say anything more. I took my leave, almost offended with her; but I pressed her hand affectionately.

Several more days passed, and still no news of Rosette. I was hurt by her desertion; she was very pretty, and she loved me, or, at all events, she pretended to, which often amounts to the same thing. If she was jealous, was not that a proof of affection? After all, I had let her go without saying a word, without trying to detain her.

"Come, come!" I said to myself; "no false shame! It is my place to make advances."

Rosette had said to me:

"If you should happen to have anything important to say to me, go to my aunt's--whichever one I am staying with--and ask for me. There's no danger; they won't see anything but smoke."

So I determined to hunt up Rosette, at her various aunts' abodes, praying that I should have less difficulty than Jason had in his quest of the Golden Fleece. Rosette, by the way, had not a golden fleece, and was to be congratulated therefor.