"Ah, yes! he's a _tourlourou_ now."

Here Cherubin again failed to understand, but Poterne returned, luckily for Mademoiselle Chichette, who was beginning to forget her part and to talk at random.

Darena soon returned also; he asked Cherubin whether he had carried forward his affair with his pretty neighbor.

"Yes, we talked; she seemed to ask nothing better. You were not mistaken; the gentleman is her husband; she's a foreigner, she has a very strong accent."

"They're Poles; I found that out in the foyer."

"She seems to be very much attached to her country--pays,--for she sighs for it and talks about it all the time!"

"Her country! oh, yes! Poland.--Did you make an appointment with her?"

"An appointment? Oh! we didn't get so far as that!"

"How did you amuse yourselves then? A woman who is mad over you, who fairly eats you with her eyes!"

"Do you think so? What good fortune! She is so pretty, and her accent is so fascinating!"

"Yes, the Polish accent has much charm."

"I am quite mad over her, my dear fellow."

"And you are right. It would be downright murder not to carry that rose-bud away from that old caterpillar!"

"Carry her away! What! do you think that it will be necessary----"

"Hush! let me act; I will arrange the whole business."

The play came to an end. Monsieur Poterne donned his umbrella-like hat, and gave the fair Chichette his arm. She, although sorely embarra.s.sed in her costume, succeeded in holding her hand out straight behind her.

Darena and his companion walked on the heels of the Poles, who took care not to turn around. Darena almost compelled Cherubin to seize the hand which the lady obligingly held behind her back, and the young man turned crimson as he whispered in his friend's ear:

"Ah! she squeezed my hand! she is squeezing it again! she keeps squeezing it!"

"Parbleu! what did I tell you?" rejoined Darena. "Sympathy--I believe that you were made for each other."

As he spoke, Darena kicked Poterne's legs viciously, to make him walk faster and force Mademoiselle Chichette to drop Cherubin's hand, which she seemed to have resolved never to release.

The so-called foreigners entered a cab. Cherubin and Darena took another and told the driver to follow the first, which stopped in front of a modest, furnished lodging house on Rue Vieille-du-Temple.

"Good," said Darena; "we know where they live, and that is enough for to-night. To-morrow you must write an impa.s.sioned letter to that Pole; I will undertake to see that she gets it without the knowledge of her husband, and I promise you that she will reply to it."

Everything being agreed between them, Cherubin went home, where Darena left him, congratulating himself on the success of his stratagem.

XX

LOUISE IN PARIS

Although fairly launched in fashionable society, although he had become the object of the allurements of several women whose conquest was desired of all; despite the ogling of grisettes and the a.s.signation proffered him by lorettes, Cherubin had not wholly forgotten the village of Gagny, and little Louise, with whom he had pa.s.sed his earliest years.

He often spoke of going to Gagny to see and embrace his dear Nicole; he had several times despatched Monsieur Gerondif to bring him news of her, accompanying the commission with little gifts for the people of the village, and bidding him inquire concerning Louise's position and prospects. The tutor always half performed his errand: he went to Gagny, delivered the presents, devoured with his eyes young Louise, who improved every day, then returned and told his pupil that his former playmate was still in Bretagne, where she was so happy that she did not intend ever to return to Nicole.

But on the day preceding his visit to the Cirque with Darena, Cherubin had once more spoken about going to Gagny, and he had stated positively, in Monsieur Gerondif's presence, that he should not allow the week to pa.s.s without going to see and embrace his old nurse.

At that the tutor was greatly disturbed.

"If monsieur le marquis goes to Gagny," he said to himself, "he will find young Louise there, and consequently he will see that I have lied to him. He is quite capable of discharging me; for, notwithstanding his usual mildness of manner, there are times when he is extremely quick to take fire. I am not at all anxious to lose a place worth fifteen hundred francs, in a fine house where I am boarded, lodged and coddled; where my duties are confined to sleeping, eating and reciting poetry to the mammoth Turlurette. Moreover, if my pupil sees young Louise again, it is probable that his love for her will revive; and that would interfere with my plans, for that girl has kindled a conflagration in my insides.

My designs are honorable, I propose to make her my wife, to raise her to the honor of my name. But, in order to marry, I must obtain some advance in my pay. If I stay with the marquis two years longer, I can save money, for I can put aside almost all that I earn; the only thing is to put little Louise in a safe place, so that she can't be whisked away from me."

Monsieur Gerondif mused upon this subject all day, and in the evening he went to pursue his meditations in the company of the kindhearted Turlurette, who fed him on brandied fruits which she prepared to perfection; and while the professor was smacking his lips over his third plum, old Jasmin, who became less active every day, but was sorely aggrieved because his master had hired a young groom, entered the housekeeper's room and said to her:

"Do you happen to know a lady's maid who is out of a place?"

"Why do you ask, Monsieur Jasmin?" queried Mademoiselle Turlurette.

"Because not long ago I was waiting for my master at some reception.--He always forbids me to do it, but that day his little groom was sick, and I seized the opportunity to drive his cabriolet in the evening. In fact, I ran into two booths; some people won't get out of the way."

"Well, Monsieur Jasmin?"

"Well, I was talking in the antechamber with the servants who happened to be there--and we had time enough to talk; people stay so late at these parties nowadays! To cut it short, one of them says to me: 'We're looking for a lady's maid for mademoiselle. Her mother's gone to the country for a while; monsieur insisted on keeping his daughter at home with him; and just at that moment they had to dismiss the lady's maid, because she talked too much with a floor-washer. As monsieur is very strict, it didn't take long; but we are looking for another maid.'--At that I proposed a person I know, who's as intelligent as can be; but when I told them that she was sixty years old, they informed me that it wasn't worth while to send her. It's surprising the way people act nowadays; they want children to wait on them."

"I don't know anybody who wants a place," Mademoiselle Turlurette replied.

Monsieur Gerondif, who had not lost a word of what Jasmin said, interposed at this point, with an affectation of indifference.

"Who were the people who wanted a lady's maid? I might be able to oblige some acquaintance of mine in Paris by offering her the place; but before I do anything about it, you will understand that I want to be sure that it's with respectable people."

"Oh! as to that, you needn't be at all afraid, Monsieur Gerondif,"

replied Jasmin. "It's in the most honorable family you can imagine.

Monsieur de Noirmont, an ex-magistrate, a man who never laughs, and who wouldn't wrong a bird. He was a friend of the late Monsieur de Grandvilain, our marquis's father."

"What does the family consist of?"

"Monsieur de Noirmont, his wife, their daughter, who is fifteen years old, a cook, monsieur's servant, and the maid they are looking for."

"Is the man-servant young?"

"Yes, he's the one I talked with. He's only fifty-six, but he seems to be a very sensible fellow."

Monsieur Gerondif smiled as he inquired:

"Do they receive much company, give b.a.l.l.s? Are they the sort of people who pa.s.s their life in _varietate voluptas_?"