"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 a.s.sure 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 pa.s.sion 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 appet.i.tes. We were as gay as larks; embarra.s.sment 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 appet.i.te, 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 pa.s.s 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 gla.s.s, 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 a.s.sumed 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 const.i.tuted.

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 mult.i.tude 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 circ.u.mstances 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 pa.s.sed very quickly; that is the greatest praise one can give a tete-a-tete.

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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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."