Cherubin made an effort to overcome his diffidence, and resolved to join Madame Celival; she, when she saw him coming toward her, bestowed a charming smile on him and at once motioned him to a seat by her side.

Encouraged by this greeting, Cherubin took his place beside the lovely brunette, faltering some words which it was impossible to hear, but to which Madame Celival replied as if she had heard them. A clever woman always finds a way, when she chooses, to impart a.s.surance to the most bashful man, by taking upon herself substantially the whole burden of the conversation. Cherubin gradually felt bolder, better pleased with himself; he had almost reached the point of being entirely at ease with his companion, when the inevitable Trichet planted himself in front of them and exclaimed:

"I don't know what you are talking about, and yet, I'll wager that I can guess."

Madame Celival, who appeared to be not at all pleased that Monsieur Trichet had interposed in her conversation with Cherubin, answered the old bachelor:

"You always try to guess what people are saying, but in this case you are quite likely to be mistaken. Tell me, what was monsieur saying to me?"

"That you are bewitching, adorable; for no man can say anything else to you."

Madame Celival smiled, with a less irritated air, while Cherubin, blushing to the whites of his eyes, exclaimed:

"Why no, I didn't tell madame that!"

"At all events, you thought it," rejoined Monsieur Trichet, "and that amounts to the same thing."

Cherubin did not know what to say; he lowered his eyes and made such a comical face that Madame Celival, taking pity on his embarra.s.sment, rose and said:

"Nonsense, my dear Trichet; you are an old idiot! That is why we all have to forgive you."

The old bachelor did not hear these last words; he had run off to join a gentleman who was declaiming at the other end of the salon, and whom it gave him great pleasure to interrupt. Madame Celival left Cherubin, saying, with a glance at once amiable and affectionate:

"I trust, monsieur, that you find my house agreeable; you will prove that you do if you come to see me often."

"Well," said Monfreville, as he joined Cherubin once more, "your business seems to be progressing."

"Ah! my dear fellow, that woman is delightful! In her company, it seemed to me that I actually had some wit. I have never been so well pleased with myself."

"It is always so!

"'A great man's friendship is a boon of the G.o.ds;' but an agreeable woman's love is the greatest blessing on earth! Come; you don't play, nor I; it is time to go."

They left the salon, which the Noirmont family had quitted just before.

XIX

THE COMTESSE DE GLOBESKA

It was nine o'clock at night, and two men, who seemed to be waiting and watching for somebody, were walking back and forth on Rue Grenetat. One of them, whose beat was from the centre of the street almost to the fountain at the corner of Rue Saint-Denis, wore a long frockcoat which fitted his figure perfectly and was b.u.t.toned to the chin, together with straw-colored gloves and the general outfit of a dandy; but when he pa.s.sed a lighted shop, one could see that his coat was worn and spotted in many places, and that his gloves were no longer perfectly fresh. This gentleman was smoking a cigar with all the grace of a regular customer at Tortoni's.

The second individual, who was enveloped in an old nut-colored box-coat, with which we are already familiar, wore a round hat, with so broad a brim and so low a crown, that at a short distance he seemed to be arrayed in the headgear of a coal man. He walked only a few steps from a house with a dark pa.s.sageway, the gate of which was open, to the second or third house on each side of it; but his eyes never lost sight of the pa.s.sage.

In these two individuals the reader will already have recognized Darena and his worthy friend Monsieur Poterne.

Since his agent had been unable to do business with the young Marquis de Grandvilain, Darena had fallen off lamentably from his former magnificence; as his profits had been squandered in a very short time, he had fallen back into what is called _n.o.ble indigence_; "completely cleaned out," was Monsieur Poterne's way of stating it.

Darena still had recourse to his young friend's purse from time to time; but he was afraid of ruining himself entirely in Cherubin's estimation, if he abused that method; for, despite his ingenuous candor, the young man was possessed of some natural common sense which enabled him to divine what was not in accordance with propriety; and Darena did not wish the doors of the hotel de Grandvilain to be closed to him.

"By G.o.d! is that beast of a Poterne making a fool of me?" said Darena, stopping at the street corner to shake the ashes off his cigar. "The idea of doing sentry-go on Rue Grenetat, where it's always muddy! It's like the country! I ought to be in the foyer of the Opera now! But I forget that my costume is a little seedy! What a beastly cigar! Pah!

there's nothing decent in this region!"

Darena threw away the end of his cigar, retraced his steps, and, halting beside Poterne, who was leaning against a post, with his eyes fixed on the dark pa.s.sageway facing him, nudged him with his elbow and said:

"Are we going to say here long, old tom-cat? Do you know that I am beginning to be deucedly bored?"

"When you want to carry an undertaking through to a good end, you must be patient," rejoined Poterne, without turning his head.

"To a good end! I fancy that your end won't be very good, you old rascal. But why does the damsel keep us waiting? Doesn't she know that you are here? Come, Poterne, answer your friend."

Poterne turned quickly and said in an undertone:

"Don't call me by name, I beg you; there's no need of the girl's knowing my real name; she might repeat it by accident, or from stupidity, and my whole plan would be overboard."

"You ought to be overboard yourself! But come, tell me what scheme you have thought up, and let me see if it has any sense; for I didn't listen to you very carefully this morning."

"It is very simple; we propose to try to make young Cherubin fall in love, in order to entangle him in an intrigue which may prove lucrative for us."

"Alas, yes! for although 'gold may be a mere chimera,' all these rascally tailors refuse to make coats for me without some of that same chimera!"

"To make sure that our Adonis becomes deeply enamored, we must first of all find a pretty girl."

"That is true; it's the same way with jugged hare--first catch your hare."

"Well, I have discovered what we need; here, in this house, on the third floor back, there is a rose, a genuine rose!"

"A rose in this vile hovel--and on the back! I am terribly afraid that your rose is only a hip!"

"You will be able to judge for yourself directly. This is the time when the work-girls leave their work; indeed, I am surprised that they haven't come out yet."

"And what does this blush rose do?"

"She makes Italian straw hats."

"Very good; and she is virtuous?"

"Oh! I don't hold her out as a prize-winner; but she makes a very modest appearance; she is very fond of a little _pays_[A] of hers, who was obliged to go into the army as a simple _tourlourou_,[B] and it would make her perfectly happy to be able to save up enough money to marry her little pays when he comes home. So she won't listen to any of the young men who run after her every night, because she knows that they're ne'er-do-wells, who won't help her to set up housekeeping with her little pays."

[A] A native of the same province.

[B] Infantryman.

"Bravo! the young woman has excellent principles. How did you make her acquaintance? by treating her to chestnuts?"

"By defending her against a young wig-maker's apprentice, who, when he pretended to take her arm, always took hold of something else."