"Bravo! let's drink! This champagne is delicious, and I know what I'm talking about."

"Yes, I will think no more of her, I will forget everything, I will love some other woman."

"Pardieu! that's the true way! In love especially, I believe in h.o.m.oeopathy."

Gustave swallowed his gla.s.s of wine at a draught, then ate a few mouthfuls with a sort of avidity; but he soon pushed his plate away, and let his head fall on his breast, muttering:

"Oh! no, I shall never love another woman; I know well enough that it would be impossible."

"The deuce! here he is in another paroxysm of his pa.s.sion! We shall have some difficulty in curing the dear boy; but we will succeed, even though that should necessitate our not leaving him for a second for ten years to come! Be yourself, Gustave, and finish your story, which, I presume, must be drawing near its end, and which interests me in the highest degree."

"Yes, yes; you are right!--I was saying that one morning, having gone to Monsieur Gerbault's house, I found Mademoiselle Adolphine alone. She greeted me with such a sorrowful air that I could not refrain from asking her what caused her sadness, and she replied: 'I suffer for your sake, I am grieved for you; for I know how dearly you love my sister, and I foresee how you will suffer when you learn that she is going to be married, and not to you.'

"'Great heaven!' I cried; 'can it be possible? f.a.n.n.y, false to me!

f.a.n.n.y, give herself to another!'

"'Yes,' said Adolphine. 'It seems to me that it is especially cruel to let you hope on, when her marriage to Monsieur Auguste Monleard was decided on a fortnight ago.'

"'She is going to marry Monsieur Monleard!' I cried; 'she throws me over for that man! And she smiled at me only yesterday when I swore to love her all my life!'

"'That's the reason I determined to tell you all,' said Adolphine. 'I did not choose that you should be deceived any longer.'

"I need not tell you what a state of despair I was in. Adolphine tried in vain to comfort me; I could not believe in f.a.n.n.y's treachery, and I insisted upon seeing her, and learning from her own lips that she preferred my rival to me.

"The next day, I found her alone. Can you believe that she greeted me with the same tranquillity, the same smile, as usual? So much so, that I cried: 'It isn't true, is it, f.a.n.n.y, that you are going to marry another man?'--Thereupon, with a little pout to which she tried to give a fitting touch of melancholy, she replied: 'Yes, Gustave; it is true. Mon Dieu! you mustn't be angry with me. At all events, it will do no good, my friend; I have reflected. We haven't enough money to marry; we should have had to lead the sort of life in which one is always forced to count the cost before indulging in any pleasure, to see if it is compatible with one's means; and, frankly, it is not amusing to figure up whether one can afford to enjoy one's self a little, to buy a hat or a jewel which takes one's fancy. So I concluded that it was more sensible to marry Monsieur Monleard, who has a handsome fortune, and I have accepted his hand. But it seems to me that you shouldn't bear me a grudge, because I have acted like a sensible woman, and we can still remain friends.'

"'I, your friend!' I exclaimed, bursting into tears; 'when you give yourself to another, when you make me miserable for life!'

"I don't know what reply she made; but somebody came to tell her that the materials for her wedding gown had arrived, and she hurried away.

Her calmness, her indifference, exasperated me. When I was alone, all sorts of incoherent ideas a.s.sailed me, but I know that I was determined to die. I was about to leave the house, fully resolved not to survive f.a.n.n.y's treachery, when suddenly I felt a caressing hand on my arm, while a sweet voice said to me in an imploring tone: 'Be a man, Gustave, be brave; resolve to endure this misfortune, which seems to break your heart to-day. Time will allay your suffering--you will love another woman, who will love you in return, who will understand your heart; and later you will be happy--much happier, perhaps, than she, who thinks of nothing but money! But, I entreat you, promise me that you will live!'

"It was Adolphine who spoke to me thus. Her tears were flowing freely.

When I found that my grief was shared, I felt a little relieved, for unhappiness makes a man selfish, and, when we are unhappy, it seems to us that other people ought to suffer as we do. I promised f.a.n.n.y's sister to renounce my thoughts of death, and I left that house, to which I shall never return!"

"I drink to good little Adolphine's health! For my part, I love that feeling heart--I shall never forget her. And our dear uncle, what said he when he learned the result of your love affair?"

"My uncle? Oh! he doesn't believe in love, not he!"

"He was quite right not to believe in your Mademoiselle f.a.n.n.y's."

"He has no confidence in women."

"He has probably made a study of them."

"In fact, when I told him that f.a.n.n.y was to marry another, he had the heartlessness to retort that that was lucky for me."

"Frankly, I agree with him; for, after all, my boy as the damsel didn't love you----"

"Why, yes, she did love me, before she knew this Monleard."

"She gave you the preference when there was n.o.body else."

"He turned her head by his magnificence, his presents."

"It is much better for you that it happened before your marriage rather than after.--Here's to your health! Ah! here's the Perigord macaroni--with truffles on top--that's the checker! Do you know this way of preparing macaroni?"

"It seems that he hastened the ceremony after our last interview; for that was only twelve days ago, and to-day I learned that the wedding was to take place at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, to be followed by a banquet and ball here."

"Yes, and then you lost your head! You said to yourself: 'I will be there, I want to see what sort of a face the faithless creature will make when she sees me.'"

"True, monsieur, true. But they must have misinformed me as to the hour of the ceremony, for when I reached the church it was all over--they had gone."

"So much the better! that saved you one stab."

"Then I started off like a madman and ran all the way here, saying to myself: 'I simply must see her!'--And you know the rest, monsieur."

"I do, indeed; and if I hadn't been here, G.o.d knows what would have happened! But I'm a lucky dog; I almost always turn up when I'm wanted.

Let us water the macaroni! I defy all the wedding parties in the place to dine better than me!"

XIII

A GENTLEMAN WHO HAD DINED WELL

Cherami had reached the dessert stage; he had amply repaired the ravages wrought in his stomach by the privation of the previous day, and he had watered his food so copiously with madeira, bordeaux, and champagne, that his face had become very red, his eyes very small, and his tongue very thick, which fact did not prevent his making constant use of it.

Gustave had drunk only two gla.s.ses of champagne; but, as he had eaten nothing at all, that had made him slightly tipsy, and he was beginning anew his trips from the dining-room to the corridor, when the waiter who served them hurried up to him, saying:

"The ladies are leaving the table, monsieur; I believe they are going to dress for the ball, for some of them have already put on their hats."

"Hurry back, then; take the bride's sister, Mademoiselle Adolphine, aside, and tell her that--Monsieur Gustave insists upon speaking to her--that I am waiting for her at the end of the corridor. Tell her that she simply must come; you understand, she must come! See, here are five francs more for you."

"Very good, monsieur. The bride's sister. But I don't know her, do I?"

"Mademoiselle Adolphine."

"Oh! yes, yes. I go, I fly, monsieur."

Gustave returned to the private room, where Cherami was occupied in admiring the bubbling of the champagne in his gla.s.s.

"She is coming! I am going to speak to her!" cried the young man.

"What! Do you mean that she's coming to join us here?"

"Yes. Oh! I am certain that she'll come. She would not like to drive me to do some crazy thing."