"To call her your wife, you mean, you rascal!"

"Well, yes, I am crazy to call her my wife! Dear Eugenie! I am so happy!

I will hurry to my mother's."

"So soon! Why, he is mad, on my word!"

"You will come again this evening, Henri?"

"Can you ask me such a question?"

I kissed Eugenie's hand and Madame Dumeillan's, and hurried from the house, to go to my mother. Ah! I was very happy; and yet I longed to be a few weeks older, in order to be even happier. But we are forever longing to grow old, and if we had our whole lives at our disposal, we should use them up in a very short time.

My mother was not at home. What a nuisance! She had gone out to make some calls. Upon whom? Where should I look for her? I went away, informing the servant that I would come again. I went away, but I had no idea where to go. My mother lived on Rue du Pas-de-la-Mule, and I knew no one in that neighborhood. Eugenie lived too far away for me to return there, for I intended to go to my mother's again soon. I determined to walk about on the boulevards in the Marais; they are less frequented there than elsewhere, and I could think of my Eugenie without being distracted by the crowd.

I walked there for fifteen minutes, then returned to my mother's; she had not come in, and I must needs walk still longer. What a bore! I should have had time to go to see Eugenie; away from her, I seemed not to live.

A little man pa.s.sed me, turned about, then stopped, barring my path. I had paid no attention to his performance, but he called out:

"I say! what in the devil are you thinking about, that you don't recognize your friends?"

It was Belan. I shook hands with him.

"I beg your pardon, my dear Belan, but I did not see you."

"You were terribly preoccupied. You were thinking of your love-affairs, I'll wager."

"Faith, yes; I don't deny it. I was thinking of the woman I shall adore all my life."

"Oho! how exalted we are! I recognize myself in that!"

I was like a child, I longed to tell everybody what made me happy. I told Belan of my love and of my impending marriage to Mademoiselle Dumeillan. The little rake made a pirouette and clapped his hands, crying:

"The deuce! you are going to be married? On my word, there is a secret sympathy between us: I am thinking of marrying too."

"Really?"

"Yes. In fact, I am fully decided upon it; I am tired of _bonnes fortunes_. And then, when your life is always in danger, it becomes wearisome after a while. Since my adventure with Montdidier--you remember?"

"Oh yes! perfectly; it was that day that I first saw Eugenie at Giraud's."

"Oho! so you met your future wife at Giraud's, did you? Then it was they who arranged the marriage?"

"No indeed. Madame Dumeillan sees them very seldom. For my part, I have never mentioned them to her; it doesn't seem to me that I need Giraud to arrange a marriage for me."

"Never mind; as it was at his house that you met the young woman, he will be furious if he isn't invited to the wedding, if he doesn't manage the whole thing, if his wife is not near the head of the table, and if his three children aren't allowed to stuff their pockets with dessert."

"In that case I fancy that he will have a chance to be furious."

"To return to myself, my dear fellow, I must tell you that since my adventure with Madame Montdidier, I have had some very disagreeable times: obliged to jump out of the window of an entresol; another time, to pa.s.s the night on a balcony, where I caught a cold that cost me eight bottles of syrup; and lastly, to avoid being surprised by a husband, compelled to hide in a chest, where I nearly stifled! I stayed in it an hour, and when they let me out, I was purple; my breath was all gone; faith! that completely disgusted me with love-affairs and intrigues; and like yourself, I propose to have done with them. I am courting a young lady who lives on Rue de la Roquette. I am going there now. You may have seen her at Giraud's--Mademoiselle de Beausire?"

"I don't remember seeing her."

"Ah! she is a very handsome girl; regular features, aquiline nose--I am very fond of aquiline noses--extraordinary eyes, small waist, beautiful figure,--everything is there!"

"Everything,--you are sure?"

"Bah! you wicked joker! yes, I am sure of it. Anybody can see that at once. I am paying most a.s.siduous court to her, and I have reason to believe that she does not look upon me with indifference. Not long ago, while we were playing games at her mother's house, she chose me to whisper a secret to; she came to me blushing, and said in my ear: 'I don't know what to say to you.' I was enchanted!"

"I don't wonder."

"Yes, for 'I don't know what to say to you' meant: 'I am afraid of saying too much.'"

"With a well-disposed person it might mean that."

"Since then I have made no secret of my intentions. Indeed, she is an excellent match; she has a dowry of eighty thousand francs, and brilliant expectations. Her family is n.o.ble. And look you, my dear fellow, I confess that, in order to make myself more attractive to the mother, I ventured to put a little _de_ before my name; it was Giraud who advised me to do it. I am now called Ferdinand de Belan."

"Oho! so you have enn.o.bled yourself on your own authority?"

"My dear fellow, I believe that I have a right to do it; while searching through my family papers, I discovered that one of my ancestors was an officer of the kitchen to Louis XV, and a man had to be of n.o.ble birth to fill that post. It was during the Revolution, no doubt, that my father dropped the _de_, from fright."

"But I have often heard you profess the most profound contempt for t.i.tles, and make sport of old parchments."

"Oh! a man often says a thing, you know, just so as to seem to have an opinion;--You must see my future wife, you must see her, that's all I say. And my mother-in-law--a superb woman still, and with such a manner!

she used to be at court, so she is a little strict in the matter of etiquette; but she adores her daughter and she has sworn never to part from her!"

"So you are going to marry two women at once, are you?"

"Oh! that is merely a figure of speech. But this is the time of day when the ladies are visible. Adieu, my dear Blemont; I invite you beforehand to my wedding; for I propose to have a magnificent wedding party at Lointier's; his rooms are superb. I have already in my mind the two costumes which I shall wear on that great day, and the steps I shall perform to open the ball. I trust that I shall go to your wedding, too?"

"Really, I don't know whether we shall have any celebration. That will be as Eugenie wishes; I a.s.sure you that I do not give any thought to that."

"Well, I dream every night of weddings, banquets and dances; twice I have tipped over my somno, thinking that I was opening the ball. Really it is very nice to be married: if anyone would a.s.sure me twelve thousand francs a year, I wouldn't remain a bachelor. Adieu, my friend: I must hurry to wait upon those ladies."

For my part, I went again to my mother's, and that time I found her. She had not finished asking me about my health when I began to tell her of my love-affairs; and I did not stop until I had begged her to go to Madame Dumeillan's with me at once.

But my mother did not share my eagerness, which indeed made her smile.

She was very glad that I was thinking of settling down, and she had no doubt that I had made an excellent choice; but she fell back on the heartless conventional phrases:

"We must see; we must make sure; we must not be in a hurry."

Not be in a hurry when one's happiness is in the balance! ah! parents never choose to remember the time when they were in love! I urged and entreated my mother to go at once to see the ladies. She calmly called my attention to the fact that it was four o'clock, that she was dining out, and that it was too late for her to call upon Madame Dumeillan that day. All that I could obtain from her was a promise to go on the following day; she even gave me permission to inform the ladies that she would call.

I had no choice but to make the best of it. I left my mother, and I would have sworn that, before I reached the foot of the stairs, she had already forgotten my visit, and was wondering what partner she would have at whist that evening.

I returned to Eugenie after dinner. Nowhere else could I be patient and find means of pa.s.sing the time until the day when I should be her husband.

Unluckily, it was the evening of Madame Dumeillan's reception; many people came, and we could not talk. My eyes expressed to Eugenie all the impatience that I felt because I was unable to talk to her of my love; and her glances told me that she shared my annoyance. At that moment, society was most disagreeable to us. If all those people had known how pleased we should have been to see them go!

However, the card tables being arranged, I hoped to be able to approach Eugenie at last; but behold, Monsieur Giraud and his wife arrived. After the usual greeting and exchange of compliments, Madame Giraud took possession of Eugenie, and her husband joined me. He talked to me in what, as I thought, he intended as a sly tone. He had evidently heard that I was paying court to Mademoiselle Dumeillan; he thought that perhaps I would ask him to negotiate my marriage, to speak for me, to arrange the provisions of the contract. Poor Giraud! I saw what he was driving at; I pretended not to understand his hints and allusions. When he mentioned Eugenie, I changed the subject. He was offended; he rose and left me. That was what I wanted. I was sure that his wife was going through the same manuvres with Eugenie. Belan was right: those people would never forgive us if we married without letting them have a hand in it; but we could do without their forgiveness.