"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!"

Frederique, 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 a.s.sure 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."

Frederique 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 pa.s.s 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.

x.x.xVII

ROSETTE'S SEVEN AUNTS

Several days pa.s.sed and I heard nothing of my grisette. But I went to see Frederique, 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 a.s.sure you that she didn't offend me in the least; far from it! her observations were so amusing, and her expressions so cla.s.sic! 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."

Frederique 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----"

Frederique 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 pa.s.sed, 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.